Requests for new languages/Wikibooks Simple English

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. A committee member provided the following comment: See closing comment below. For LangCom: StevenJ81 (talk) 16:17, 26 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The community needs to develop an active test project; it must remain active until approval (automated statistics, recent changes). It is generally considered active if the analysis lists at least three active, not-grayed-out editors listed in the sections for the previous few months.
The community needs to complete required MediaWiki interface translations in that language (about localization, translatewiki, check completion).
The community needs to discuss and complete the settings table below:

What	Value	Example / Explanation

Proposal
Language code	en-simple (SIL, Glottolog)	A valid ISO 639-1 or 639-3 language code, like "fr", "de", "nso", ...
Language name	Simple English	Language name in English
Language name	Simple English	Language name in your language. This will appear in the language list on Special:Preferences, in the interwiki sidebar on other wikis, ...
Language Wikidata item	Q21480034 - item has currently the following values: English label: Simple English native label (P1705): Simple English instance of (P31)/subclass of (P279): controlled language / English Wikimedia language code (P424): simple, en-x-simple, en-simple writing system (P282): Latin script number of speakers, writers, or signers (P1098):	Item about the language at Wikidata. It would normally include the Wikimedia language code, name of the language, etc. Please complete at Wikidata if needed.
Directionality	no indication	Is the language written from left to right (LTR) or from right to left (RTL)?
Links		Links to previous requests, or references to external websites or documents.
Site URL	en-simple.wikibooks.org	langcode.wikiproject.org

Settings
Project name	Wikibooks	"Wikibooks" in your language
Project namespace	Wikibooks	usually the same as the project name
Project talk namespace	Wikibooks talk	"Wikibooks talk" (the discussion namespace of the project namespace)
Enable uploads	no	Default is "no". Preferably, files should be uploaded to Commons. If you want, you can enable local file uploading, either by any user ("yes") or by administrators only ("admin"). Notes: (1) This setting can be changed afterwards. The setting can only be "yes" or "admin" at approval if the test creates an Exemption Doctrine Policy (EDP) first. (2) Files on Commons can be used on all Wikis. (3) Uploading fair-use images is not allowed on Commons (more info). (4) Localisation to your language may be insufficient on Commons.
Optional settings
Project logo		This needs to be an SVG image (instructions for logo creation).
Default project timezone	Continent/City	"Continent/City", e.g. "Europe/Brussels" or "America/Mexico City" (see list of valid timezones)
Additional namespaces		For example, a Wikisource would need "Page", "Page talk", "Index", "Index talk", "Author", "Author talk".
Additional settings		Anything else that should be set
submit Phabricator task. It will include everything automatically, except additional namespaces/settings. After creating the task, add a link to the comment.

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.

The proposal is to reopen(unclose) the Simple English Wikibooks.

Arguments in favor[edit]

b:simple: was closed due to being inactive, which is no longer a valid reason to close a project Rowan03 (talk) 21:27, 6 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Support. I think that Langcom decision was made in 2008. KATMAKROFAN (talk) 18:56, 14 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@KATMAKROFAN: [where?] --Liuxinyu970226 (talk) 01:59, 16 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Strongest Support --101.86.89.233 06:43, 24 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Argument against[edit]

It seems that "we" are not creating (or reopening) any more "Simple English" projects (see, for example, Requests for new languages/Wikinews Simple English 2) nor any other "Simple AnyLanguage" projects (e.g., Requests for new languages/Wikipedia French Simple 3). In this particular case, the nature of Wikibooks means such content could very easily exist alongside the regular English content in the English Wikibooks, either in a separate namespace (there is already "Wikijunior:" for kids books, but there could also be, say, "Simple:" or "Basic:", or whatever) or by using a standard book naming/classification system in the main namespace. - dcljr (talk) 18:08, 7 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Note, BTW, that the old Simple English Wikibooks content was (partially) merged into the English Wikibooks when the wiki was closed. It appears that little effort was made to keep the content "simple", however — some ended up in Wikijunior, but the titles of the books that ended up in the main namespace don't seem to indicate that simplified English should be used. Still, going forward, I don't believe any policy, guideline, or convention at the English Wikibooks prevents the creation of new books with controlled vocabularies, such as X for English Learners, or similar. - dcljr (talk) 18:40, 7 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I think LangCom will likely reject this proposal for the reasons that dcljr has stated here. Why not try to get English Wikibooks to carve out a namespace for this? StevenJ81 (talk) 20:20, 8 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose This user is trying to make so-called Simple projects only on himself behavior. --Liuxinyu970226 (talk) 10:57, 19 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
- "So-called"? Maybe these will change your mind... KATMAKROFAN (talk) 19:41, 19 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  @KATMAKROFAN: And again can you please, as I'm crying WITH TEARS to request you to, see comments of your proposed Proposals_for_closing_projects/Closure_of_Cebuano_Wikipedia? There's a lot of users that pointed your ugly histories! --Liuxinyu970226 (talk) 14:59, 20 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I don't think this will pass. The Simple-wiki community has pretty much decided new projects would be too high maintenance. Zhangj1079 ^talk 04:03, 28 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose. Please consider English b:Wikibooks:Wikijunior.--Jusjih (talk) 01:00, 3 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose For many reasons pointed out above. It is just redundant, non viable project that will incur unnecessary cost which can be channeled to something better. Ammarpad (talk) 09:44, 15 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

* Strong oppose --Assoc (talk) 03:35, 21 January 2018 (UTC)revoked as vandal-only account. --Liuxinyu970226 (talk) 03:46, 21 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose. Reasons (1) This thing called "Simple English" is not a language but a subset of standard English, therefore, this proposal should not be approved, because there is already a Wikibooks for English: Rule 2: The language must have a valid ISO 639 1–3 code (search). - it has not a own valid ISO 639 code because it is just English. Rule 3: The language must be sufficiently unique that it could not coexist on a more general wiki. In most cases, this excludes regional dialects and different written forms of the same language. - it is not unique, it is just English. (2) This could be developed inside English Wikibooks, as said by Dcljr. (3) It would divide efforts needlessly between two almost identical Wikibooks (with the same language) when there are scarce in lesser sister projects. --Zerabat (discusión) 14:03, 10 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Simple English is inherently exempt from the "Valid ISO 639–3 code" and "sufficiently unique" rules for a variety of reasons, including historical ones. That said, arguments (2) and (3) are incorporated into my closing comment below. StevenJ81 (talk) 16:17, 26 September 2018 (UTC) [reply]

Discussion[edit]

Could somebody apply for the ISO code "ens"? I can't wrap my head around the SIL change request process. KATMAKROFAN (talk) 16:02, 15 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Closing comment[edit]

As pointed out above, a fair amount of content was moved from the previous version of this project into English Wikibooks, and especially its Wikijunior section. LangCom sees no reason that Simple English content would not be appropriately incorporated into English Wikibooks—and better served there, too.

Accordingly, any future request for a Wikibooks Simple English is going to be speedy-deleted as an invalid request unless the following two points are both true:

Substantial Simple English content has been created within English Wikibooks.
The English Wikibooks community agrees that it wants to spin off this content into a separate project. (To demonstrate this, you would need to provide a link to a discussion at English Wikibooks.)

I would add, though, that if substantial Simple English content (beyond Wikijunior) is created in English Wikibooks, if the community requests it, I will be happy to have the sitenotice on the closed Simple English Wikibooks modified to point to it. For LangCom: StevenJ81 (talk) 16:17, 26 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.