Monday, September 08, 2008

The most useful Wikimedia project

When you ask people what project is the most useful to them, you expect to hear "Wikipedia". Often it is not the English language variation of the project, but Wikipedia is what you typically hear. I asked a relative of mine what her favourite was, and to my amazement it was Wikiquote. Finding good quotes is of importance to her and Wikiquote fulfils this role.

Some people are of the opinion that Wikiquote is not so useful, that it is to be closed because many of the quotes are at best available under fair use and not under a viral license. The proposal can be found here..

Many of the arguments are a bit stale and as always, it is other people telling the people who do the work what to do. I am sure that when the WMF has a valid reason to kill off this project they would do so....

I hate these recurring eruptions of destructiveness.
Thanks,
      GerardM

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

To me, Wiktionary becomes the second. I always look for several-language translations.

Whiteknight said...

I disagree that this is just mindless "destructiveness". Any opportunity that a project has to accept criticisms, seriously analyze itself, and refactor itself to focus on it's core strengths should be welcome.

Wikiquote will only benefit if it's members take this discussion seriously, identify problems in their project, and work seriously to resolve them. A little bit of argument and destruction can, if channeled correctly, yield great results.

Don't be upset that people want to close Wikiquote, be hopeful that Wikiquote proves decisively to it's critics that it's a serious long-term self-supporting project, and an indespensible part of the Wikimedia foundation.

GerardM said...

Obviously you disagree because you continue to tell others what to do. I do not say that the proponents of closure are mindless. I disagree that this discussion if "for the good" of Wikiquote and consequently i do not expect much good to come from it.

The WMF can do without many of its projects, it could do with projects that are outside of it as well. There are those that only consider the en.wikipedia to be indispensable...
Thanks,
GerardM