Closing projects policy

See here for the version before the LangCom meeting.

Language committee
Language committee
For requesting users
Requests Proposal policy Handbook (requesters) Incubator manual
For members
Handbook (committee) Voting policy
Information
Common answers Discussion archives
Closing projects (voluntarily)
Closing projects policy Proposals

This policy defines the process to close (and in some situations delete) a wiki hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. The proposals are handled by Language Committee members who opt-in to take care of this, and the Board of Trustees has final authority over the member's decision.

Problem situation and new authority

Previous Proposals for closing projects lacked a clear policy. Several proposals have been made for a policy, but no one before was adopted.

Because of that, a lot of small inactive wikis were proposed to be closed. Some people supported out of principle ("wiki is inactive"), while others opposed out of principle ("let it grow"). Often, users came by and made a decision, which could even be the opposite of the actual consensus.

This policy tries to address this problem by:

• requiring a valid reason for closure, and defining several reasons as either valid or invalid reasons
• putting the procedure in hands of language committee members and final Board decision

The community has no longer authority over closing projects, but only an advising task. This puts the procedure in line with the language proposal policy, which is also dependent on language committee and Board approval. That means closing projects is no longer easier than opening one.

Although the decision is made by a member of the Language Committee and no longer through community consensus, the Board will have final authority, and the LangCom is convinced that this procedure will improve the decision-making and that both the LangCom and the Board are the appropriate authority for dealing with closing Wikimedia wikis.

Policy proposal

Types of proposals

In order to distinguish routine situations from potentially more complex or unusual ones, projects that are proposed to be deleted are classified as one of two types:

1. Regular language editions that are small/inactive but do not generally harm to stay open (automatic spam is always blocked, contrary to the past).

   For example: Afar Wiktionary, Gaeilge Wikiquote, Guarani Wikibooks, ...

2. Other (often relatively more active) wikis that may be controversial, questionable or in another way uncommon.

   For example: Quality Wikimedia, Simple English Wikiquote, ...

Definition of actions

• Closing a wiki means locking the database so it cannot be edited but all pages are still visible to public. User rights (sysop, ...) are removed and can be restored on user request when the wiki is re-activated.
• Deleting a wiki means deleting the database so it is completely unavailable on the web. An XML file with the wiki's content will still be available for external use.
• Transferring or importing content means moving useful articles/pages, along with the contribution history, to the Wikimedia Incubator, OldWikisource or BetaWikiversity (or another site when explicitly mentioned). See incubator:I:Importing for more info.
  • Files are left on the wiki because of a lack of an export function. When the wiki will be deleted, files could be downloaded manually if needed. When such a software feature becomes available, files should be exported.

Proposing

Anyone can propose to close a wiki. The following must be done:

• The proposal must be categorised under either type 1 or type 2 (see above).
• If you want the wiki to be deleted as well, that must be explicitly mentioned in the proposal.
• When the proposal is submitted, the local wiki should be informed as soon as possible.
• A good reason should be given why it should be closed/deleted.
  • Inactivity in itself is no valid reason; additional problems are. When the Wikimedia Incubator is at a stage where it is usable to a certain extent like a real wiki, inactivity will be a valid reason.
  • Absence of content since the wiki's creation is a valid reason (usually for type 1).
  • Not meeting the current WM:LPP requirements is no valid reason.

Decision

• During a period of 30 (can be changed) days, the proposal is public to the community for comments and recommendations.
• Any Language Committee member who has opted-in to take care of handling closing projects proposals can bring up the proposal on the mailing list. It is discussed during 15 days (or longer if needed), without formal voting.
• Thereafter, the initial LangCom member makes a decision and sends its recommendation to the Board which has final authority.

Proposal approved

• For the first type of proposal, useful content should be transferred to the Incubator. Whether content is useful is hard to define, but common sense can help. For the second type, a different solution for the content is often appropriate.
• A bug should be submitted to Bugzilla to request the closure (and deletion if applicable).
• Re-opening projects is done through requests for new languages, which uses the Meta:Language proposal policy that is much more strict than used to be in the past (when most wikis that are now proposed for closure, were started)

Proposal rejected

• The wiki remains open.
• A new proposal may be submitted if there are new conditions. A proposal that is exactly the same, may not be made the same year to reduce unneeded duplicate proposals.

Retroactivity

As has been done when the Langcom policy was introduced, all current proposals will be made invalid. Anyone can start a new proposal under the new policy.

Links

• http://noc.wikimedia.org/conf/closed.dblist – automatic list of currently closed wikis
• Bug 28985 – Wikis ready for closing (tracking)
• Previous proposals
  • Closure of WMF projects (August 2008 proposal)
  • Closing/Deletion project policy (2006 proposal)
• Other
  • Proposals for closing projects
  • Proposals for closing projects/General discussion about small, inactive wikis
  • Requests for comment/Rights and closed wikis