There are still different opinions on this: Gerard and Michael would reject the 
proposal, MF-W would accept it as eligible. Let me outline points of agreement 
first, then points of disagreement. Then I'd like to propose a next step, and 
see what people think.

Agreement:

  1.  Even MF-W agrees that, at least in the short-to-mid-term, nobody is 
talking about pulling apart the current zhwikisource, and spinning the lzh 
content into a new project.
  2.  (I think) All agree that lzh served a role in East Asia similar to the 
role of Latin in Europe. Accordingly, policy allows a separate lzh project and 
doesn't demand that lzh content be moved into a zh project.

Disagreement:

  1.  If we mark this as "eligible", does that mean that when the test on 
Multilingual Wikisource becomes approvable (if ever), we categorically MUST 
move all the lzh content from zhwikisource into the new project? Or can lzh 
content exist in both places?
  2.  (I think) Just because policy allows a separate lzh project doesn't mean 
it requires one; we can still require all lzh content to be put into the zh 
project.
     *   If #2 is true, though, there is still a concern that the zh project 
will not meet the needs of non-Mandarin speakers with respect to lzh content.

The only reason we really even have a problem is the bullet point under 
"Disagreement #2". If not for that, we could reject the language request 
without a problem. And I'm convinced that at present, that's more of a 
theoretical issue being put out by the proponents of an lzh Wikisource than it 
is a practical problem people are having right now. Still, we can't entirely 
discount it.

In the short run, I think we could keep everyone happy by not touching current 
lzh content on zhwikisource, while allowing other lzh content to be created on 
oldwikisource. (There is precedent for allowing content on oldwikisource in 
parallel to content in a separate Wikisource, though in the main case I think 
of, Polish, that's done for copyright reasons. And we'd want to encourage some 
ground rules about duplication of documents, since that's not a concern in the 
Polish case.) Even if we agree to that, though, the question remains: How do we 
resolve the status of the language request? So here's how I see all the 
possible options playing out:

  *   Eligible.  This does mean that at some point, if the lzh test becomes 
approvable, we agree it can be approved. I'm OK with this option if the answer 
to "disagreement #1" is that we are not necessarily committing that all lzh 
content would have to be moved to an lzh Wikisource. We can kick the can down 
the road, and also don't have to commit that lzh content will not be moved, 
either. If we do this, I would make it clear on eligibility that we are not 
committing to what that means for the future for the current lzh content of 
zhwikisource.
  *   Place on hold. (option 1) We can see if enough contributors actually come 
to work on lzh content on oldwikisource to make that viable, or whether by a 
year from now it becomes a non-issue. (option 2) It goes on hold because we 
decide that we're just not going to decide now, and we'll revisit it if and 
when that's appropriate.
  *   Reject.  This doesn't actually mean we don't allow lzh content to stay on 
oldwikisource. After all, there are a number of projects in ancient languages 
that have been rejected by LangCom but where tests still exist on Incubator 
because the rules for Incubator are less strict than the rules for subdomain 
project eligibility/approval. Since the rules for oldwikisource are even less 
strict than the rules for Incubator, the lzh "test" could stay on 
oldwikisource. But this option basically says that this content will always 
stay on oldwikisource.

My recommendation

  *   I think we need to leave the content of zhwikisource alone now, but allow 
additional lzh content on oldwikisource, with rules against duplication.
  *   By process of elimination, I'd recommend "placing on hold" for now. I 
really don't see consensus coalescing here.  Also, I think there's a good 
enough chance that this test never goes anywhere that we may as well wait to 
see what happens before committing to a decision.  (And, to tell the truth, in 
most cases like this, where there is little actual activity in the test, that's 
what we actually usually do until there is proof of activity.)
     *   If you're not willing to do that, I would go for "eligible" IF AND 
ONLY IF that doesn't mean we're committing to the future of any existing 
content either way. In principle, this lzh ought to be eligible, and there's 
nothing wrong with saying so. But if we think that "eligible" automatically 
means that content MUST be moved in the future if an lzhwikisource is created, 
then I would "reject", because I don't think that moving content out of 
zhwikisource will ever be a viable option.

Please respond promptly to this if you will. I'd love to close this off 
(finally).
Steven





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