Requests for new languages/Wikinews Simple English 2

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Simple English Wikinews (2)[edit]

submitted verification final decision
This proposal has been rejected.
This decision was taken by the language committee in accordance with the Language proposal policy based on the discussion on this page.

The closing committee member provided the following comment:

Committee discussion upheld the previous rejection. This request does not meet the minimum requirements for a new wiki. It does not have an ISO 639 code separate from English (which has its own project), and there is no standard orthography, literature, or other indication that this is a distinct language or dialect. It also fails the uniqueness requirement, as there is high mutual intelligibility between simple English and English, so that simple English could be written on the English Wikinews and English articles simplified.

Note that this does not affect simple English wikis created before the language committee was established, and those wikis do not affect this or any future decision. —Pathoschild 00:35:01, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Proposal summary
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Hi there all. I am Razorflame from the Simple English Wikipedia, and I would like to propose the addition of a Simple English Wikinews. There have been many complaints that Simple English is not a real language, and while that might be the case, there has already been the allowance for the creation of the Simple English Wikipedia, Simple English Wiktionary, and a Simple English Wikiquote. All three of these projects have been extremely successful, although none have been more successful than the Simple English Wikipedia. If you would allow for the creation of the Simple English Wikinews, you will allow for the collection of Simple English wikis to grow and flourish, and that is exactly what I would like to see happen for the communities of the Simple English projects.

Arguments in favour[edit]

  • A Simple English Wikinews would allow for foriegners and children to more easily understand the current events that are going on in the world today. I have had some people come up to me and ask why there isn't a Simple English Wikinews and how it would be such a big help if it were allowed to be created, and I would really like to be able to grant people just that, because I feel that it would definitely be a positive addition to the collection of wikis that are currently hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. I know that people are kind of unhappy with the additions of the Simple English projects, but you really have to say that nothing bad could come out of someone granting this request, now is there? I realize that the Simple English language does not have an ISO code, however, I do believe that it should fall under the clause of the Language proposal policy of a invented or constructed language. There have been several references to a Simple English in history past and I definitely think that we could get the community that would be necessary for this project to flourish.
    After talking to Pathoschild over IRC, he said that the language committee's opinions might have changed on this matter, and if that is the case, then I really think that you should give it a chance to grow and flourish. Another point that I would like to make is this: you have already allowed for the creation of the Simple English Wikipedia, Wiktionary, and Wikiquote, so why not allow for the creation of the Simple English Wikinews to complete the family of Simple English wikis. It really won't harm any other community by allowing this Wikinews to be created, and I believe that it would really positively affect the English Wikinews, because people going to the Simple English Wikinews would also be acquainted with the English Wikinews, and therefore, it could possibly increase the amount of new users on the English Wikinews as well as on its' own. I therefore would like to ask you to please think this over carefully before closing this request as not eligible or by disallowing it to be created, because by not allowing it to be created, you would definitely be harming the communities of more than one project, including the Simple English Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikiquote, and, believe it or not, the English Wikinews as well. Please do not auto-reject this request because it is a serious request that should be given serious thought before it gets closed. Thank you, Razorflame 23:45, 16 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Arguments against[edit]

Other discussion[edit]

I realize that if you allow for the creation of this Wikinews, that you would also have to allow for the creation of other Simple projects, however, this is not the place for that discussion. Razorflame 23:45, 16 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]