[Wikinews-l] [Fwd: Re: [Foundation-l] the features...]

Wed Jul 6 16:32:41 UTC 2005

Amgine wrote:
> The governance issues are not the basic reason for the Open English
> proposal (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikinews/Start_a_new_edition)

"Open English" is not a language, and so this is not the appropriate
forum to propose or promote such a concept.  Even so, the concerns
raised should of course be considered and dealt with if possible.

I just now read:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikinews/Open_English
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikinews/Open_English
and the relevant portion of
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikinews/Start_a_new_edition

and I still don't quite get what this dispute is all about.

Let me see if I can state some principles which I think that everyone
involved can agree with fully:

1. Wikinews should be open and welcoming to any contributor

2. Wikinews should not have special complications which are offputting
to newcomers

3. We should work hard to balance two goals which are both important,
but which have significant tensions between them:
	a. Empowering people to do local news
	b. Keeping the site relevant and interesting for all people

4.  If a newcomer comes to Wikinews and makes a mistake (i.e. no proper
{{develop}} or {{publish}} tag), then their work should not be lost or
hidden, but should instead be highlighted somewhere useful so that other
users can help the newcomer learn.

5. This one is perhaps the hardest to write in an NPOV manner: Erik is
not the dictator of Wikinews, and furthermore, everyone can acknowledge
that he has said so himself, repeatedly.  We can all further
acknowledge, even Erik, that he acts boldly and with conviction at times
and that this has at times irritated people who felt (fairly or
unfairly) that he was trying to be a dictator.

----

Now, I pulled most of those principles directly from the Open English
proposal, and added the one about Erik because I hope it will be helpful
to just state that issue plainly and openly.

If everyone agrees, at least roughly, with all the above principles,
then what's the point of Open English?

--Jimbo