[Wikipedia-l] Time to set up Wikimedia ProjectCommittees

Mon Jan 26 21:06:01 UTC 2004

Elisabeth Bauer wrote:
> it should be guaranteed that the welsh wikipedians decide over the
> policies of the welsh wikipedia, the wikibookists over wikibooks and
> so on.

No, we are a single unified international project.  There are policies
which are global, and the Foundation will defend those policies.

> The wikimedia foundation is for keeping the servers running, collecting 
> funds and defending the projects against legal threats, but not for 
> enforcing rules (or a however defined code of ethics) upon all projects.

No, there are certain things that I have always said, from the
beginning, are enforceable rules.  That won't change.

If the Welsh wikipedia community votes to implement a policy whereby
only pre-approved contributors may contribute, or that only
contributions of a certain political type will be permitted, or
whatever, the power will always remain with the international project
as a whole to say, "No, you can't do that."

This idea of each wikipedia being entirely and completely autonomous
is just a complete nonstarter, and has been from the beginning of the
entire project.

At the same time, I have always also firmly said that there's
absolutely no reason why the exact rules and policies of the
English-language wikipedia should be enforced in other languages,
other cultures.  The broad gist of things, sure, but the details may
vary to some extent based on a vast number of local factors.  

And so, if the English wikipedia voted that some policy has to be
implemented in the Welsh community whereby only pre-approved
contributors may contribute, or that only contributions of a certain
political type will be permitted, or whatever, the power will always
remain with the international project as a whole to say "No, you can't
do that."

--Jimbo