The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the miscellaneous page below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the page's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the discussion was Keep. Consensus is clear that this MfD was premature and that the status of the project should be revisited at a later time. As for the claim that the page is "clearly is a violation of the GNU license", that is undoubtably wrong. The GFDL license covers sharing and attribution, it has absolutely nothing to do with open access to editing. BJTalk 03:11, 2 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

WP:5 Wikipedia is free content that anyone may edit. All text is available under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) and may be distributed or linked accordingly. Recognize that articles can be changed by anyone and no individual exclusively controls any specific article; this project limited discussion to Wikiproject co-ordinators only, which clearly is a violation of the GNU license, along with WP:OWN. Such a project is not within the spirit of the community. -- Gnangarra 14:41, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

precendent on closing such projects is at Wikipedia:Esperanza which says This essay serves as a warning to all editors that existing projects must be open and transparent to all editors at all times, not to be overly hierarchical lest they are to meet a fate similar to Esperanza's Gnangarra 15:35, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Project is new and current wording is horrendous; could it please be discussed more on the talk page? -Drilnoth (talk) 15:39, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Umm... Strong keep? This was created only a few days ago and hasn't really gotten going. There's even still talk page discussion about the appropriateness of it, so it seems a little premature to go to MFD. Although targeted at "co-ordinators," under the assumption that they are in touch with most of their project, the goal of this page is to be open to everyone... we just want a "stable list" of coordinators to be able to contact whenever there's a new discussion; everyone's invited to join and all opinions will be weighed equally. I also don't understand your point about the GNU, which I don't believe has any clause about any perceived "hierarchy". Also, WP:OWN applies to article ownership... this is in no way intended to apply to article ownership or WikiProject ownership. -Drilnoth (talk) 15:03, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
from this and duplicated by Shepbots 500+ edits All designated project coordinators are invited to join this working group. If your project hasn't formally designated any editors as coordinators, but you are someone who regularly deals with coordination tasks in the project, please feel free to join as well. is not an open invitation but specifying that only certain editors may participate in the discussion. Gnangarra 15:17, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Indeed. Additionally, [1] the editors who participate here—whether coordinators or random passerby—must take responsibility for acting as liaisons between the central discussion and the WikiProjects they represent. This sounds like imposing a mandatory hierarchy to me. Orderinchaos 05:32, 1 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
cresponse I'm not an editor within the invited group like most of the editors on WP so its wholely appropriate to bring this discussion to where the wider community is free to participate. Gnangarra 15:38, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
You could have discussed it on the talk page. There was still active discussion there from editors both for and against it. -Drilnoth (talk) 15:40, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, if one applies the doctrine of good faith (i.e. WP:AGF), it may just so happen you're either mistaken about something or are not fully informed. There was nothing preventing editors from using the talk page; if you made an effort to look at it, multiple editors (coordinators or non-coordinators) have used it whether they were invited or not. But for argument's sake, even accepting that as a reason, there was nothing preventing you from asking Shep (the bot-owner himself) about the details (eg; how this came about, who participated, why it was worded in the way it was, and whether (most importantly) it was intentionally worded that way). Instead, you assumed your interpretation was universal: you needed to be satisfied before this had a chance of working, and by insisting the wider community wastes its time on this step when it didn't need to. Sorry, but this nom is being called out for what it is - plainly unhelpful. Ncmvocalist (talk) 15:47, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
response And this is what? due to EC Its a valid discussion open to the whole community it doesnt matter how old a page is any page can be brought to a deletion discussion and the person nominating doesnt need to ask permission first. Gnangarra 15:52, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Please don't change the point: this isn't a matter of permission - this is a matter of basic courtesy that any person can expect, whether it's on or off Wikipedia. Ncmvocalist (talk) 15:55, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I'm changing the point? you said I should have used the talk page of the project, I'm saying that the spammed invite didnt included most editors of Wikipedia(myself included) as a matter of fact it specified that editors with only a certain status within a project were able to comment. Deletion discussion are to discuss the deletion of pages that dont meet the policies as written by the Community, MFD doesnt not say that discussion must first take place on the talk page, it does say that one should consider notifying the main contributors of the discussion but as this was spammed into 500+ plus articles it would require similar notification.
I see that some changes have taken place in response to this MFD to open up the page to other editors Gnangarra 16:07, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Comment. The changes came about before the page was nominated for deletion, as a result of concerns raised on the talk page. That's why I still think this deletion discussion is premature. Did you read the talk page before nominating? Physchim62 (talk) 16:10, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
(ec) Those changes were set to take place regardless of this MFD; which is again, why I consider it a disruptive pointy abuse of process - this was being discussed in more than one venue; the fact you chose MFD speaks volumes. You're evading the bulk of my comment; your clear failure to communicate at all, including on the page of the user who sent the invite. Policies are not just words or rules of law that are followed without applying what people often refer to as "common sense", even on policy pages themselves. Your nom is frivolous, and quite frankly, I'm done trying to make you understand how poor your judgement was here - I'll leave it to someone else. Ncmvocalist (talk) 16:18, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
(ec)I answered your comment anyone may bring any page to the appropriate deletion discussion page its neither pointy nor an abuse of process Gnangarra 16:26, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I think that clearly when one is not invited by a bot, one may look elsewhere where their voice is welcome. MFD is open to all. And Gnangarra indeed has a point: the invitation itself did not appear to invite him/her to discussing the project on its project page. Yes, it's been changed now, but it was a cold exclusive little turn off when I first read it. That was the real poor judgment. Oh, Gnangarra, you don't have to do anything other than talk to other members to be a member of WP:Plants--signing up or officially joining is no requirement of the process. --KP Botany (talk) 19:04, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

*Snow Keep Many editors have already agreed to participate in a process already underway. This is a clear Keep. Thanks. Ism schism (talk) 17:23, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

  • CommentYet it still seems to be the intention. Ah, I found a part of the quote above, "All designated project coordinators are invited to join this working group. If your project hasn't formally designated any editors as coordinators, but you are someone who regularly deals with coordination tasks in the project, please feel free to join as well." What exactly do you even mean by coordinators? The "leaders?" It's a problem because it's all so confusing that you seem to want project leaders, but are aghast that you called for them. --KP Botany (talk) 18:56, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Yes, that's correct. I couldn't even find it, except in the quote above, in the historical versions. However, it was an unfortunate turn-off. Maybe regrouping in user space, identifying your goal well, and reconsidering bot invites and who you really want to participate might be useful at this point. --KP Botany (talk) 19:07, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • It was a poor choice of words and has been corrected... I don't think that that kind of limitation was ever the actual intent of the authors, and it was just not properly explained. I believe that the current version is what the project page (or something like it) should look like when all is said and done... would you support an effort such as this with the current description, disregarding previous errors? -Drilnoth (talk) 19:11, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • No. The working group should simply contact projects or post a notice on the community portal about discussions that could impact them, not project "coordinators/leaders/bosses." Many Wikiprojects work fine without artificial bureaucracies added for any purpose whatsoever. --KP Botany (talk) 19:16, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • So instead of letting them figure it out and then re-examining, we should just delete without even knowing what it is that's being deleted? How will deleting and starting over be any better? Won't these "key stakeholders" know that it is just a restart of the same project? Beeblebrox (talk) 19:18, 1 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Why should Wikipedians be forced to agree to a proposition that its proponents can't even figure out yet? Insanity at its peak. Something that has been screwed up this badly at this stage really has no future in my view, it needs to be taken back to the drawing board and reworked, otherwise it will not attract buy-in from key stakeholders (i.e. representatives of the projects representing the majority of Wikipedia's content.) If it does not have buy-in, then this will be yet another talkfest which achieves nothing and whose recommendations are generally ignored - something Wikipedia is very good at creating. Orderinchaos 00:14, 2 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
As long as we are not cutting off the nose to spite the face, as the saying goes. Having something that drives users away and sows discord and political wrangling within projects all for the sake of trying to improve something mundane like assessment MUST be avoided at all costs. Orderinchaos 00:14, 2 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the page's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.