Simple English Wikibooks Deletion

[Aaron Adrignola]

Was anyone aware, when deciding that Simple English Wikibooks would be
closed, that it would outright be deleted? See
http://simple.wikibooks.orgto see what I mean.

This prevents any import of the content to English Wikibooks at all,
regardless of how it would be done. I know the bug filed to close the wiki
only asked for closure and not deletion.

I am disappointed by this move. I had heard that it wouldn't reopen due to
policies but I would have made an effort to import what content there was to
at least our transwiki namespace had I known it would be deleted entirely.

(Aaron) Adrignola
English Wikibooks

[Andrew Whitworth]

I'm a little disappointed by the decision myself, but I can't say that
I was surprised by it. I don't think anybody should have been
surprised that a project with only a half-dozen "active" members, or a
project that could go for months at a time without a single edit would
eventually be closed. If anything, we should be disappointed by the
members of that project who resisted a voluntary merger on several
occasions. I saw that the members there would rather their content be
trapped on a small, under-staffed and under-advertised project instead
of moving it to a larger project where it would get more legitimate
attention and exposure. I offered my own time on several occasions to
do the content transfer, and was always met with resistance. I know
other Wikibookians offered help as well, with similar results.

So don't be disappointed that the content was not saved at the last
possible moment. Be disappointed that we had months where we could
have been moving it and nobody made the effort. Be disappointed that
everybody in the whole wiki-world knew that Simple English Wikibooks
was not a viable project, except the "community" of people who worked
there and should have known best. Be disappointed that the people who
were supposed to be the caretakers of that content chose to let it get
deleted rather than have it moved someplace safe and active.

--Andrew Whitworth



On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 8:07 AM, Aaron Adrignola

Post by Aaron Adrignola
Was anyone aware, when deciding that Simple English Wikibooks would be
closed, that it would outright be deleted?  See
http://simple.wikibooks.orgto see what I mean.
This prevents any import of the content to English Wikibooks at all,
regardless of how it would be done.  I know the bug filed to close the wiki
only asked for closure and not deletion.
I am disappointed by this move.  I had heard that it wouldn't reopen due to
policies but I would have made an effort to import what content there was to
at least our transwiki namespace had I known it would be deleted entirely.
(Aaron) Adrignola
English Wikibooks
_______________________________________________
Textbook-l mailing list
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/textbook-l

[Martin Swift]

Comrads,

Post by Aaron Adrignola
Was anyone aware, when deciding that Simple English Wikibooks would be
closed, that it would outright be deleted? See
http://simple.wikibooks.orgto see what I mean.

I'm similarly very disappointed that Simple was deleted. There was
some good content there and several Wikibookians had spent a fair
amount of time looking through it. I'm furthermore surprised that
no-one contacted Wikibooks as I thought it was well known that we had
expressed our interest.

Whom do we contact to try to retrieve the content?

Sincerely,
Martin Swift

[Douglas Gardner]

I assume that one can reopen the bug @
https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=22103 with queries &c;.

Microchip08
(SEWB sysop)

-----Original Message-----
From: textbook-l-bounces-RusutVdil2icGmH+5r0DM0B+***@public.gmane.org
[mailto:textbook-l-bounces-RusutVdil2icGmH+5r0DM0B+***@public.gmane.org] On Behalf Of Martin Swift
Sent: 24 February 2010 04:27 PM
To: Wikimedia textbook discussion
Subject: Re: [Textbook-l] Simple English Wikibooks Deletion

Comrads,

Post by Aaron Adrignola
Was anyone aware, when deciding that Simple English Wikibooks would be
closed, that it would outright be deleted? See
http://simple.wikibooks.orgto see what I mean.

I'm similarly very disappointed that Simple was deleted. There was
some good content there and several Wikibookians had spent a fair
amount of time looking through it. I'm furthermore surprised that
no-one contacted Wikibooks as I thought it was well known that we had
expressed our interest.

Whom do we contact to try to retrieve the content?

Sincerely,
Martin Swift

[Mike.lifeguard]

I doubt the content is truly gone. Someone should try to figure out
which sysadmin closed the project (Rob, I'd wager), then contact them
about this. It'd be nice if someone could take this on - it'd be a week
or so before I could do it (on vacation, very little internet access).

- -Mike

[Casey Brown]

On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 5:11 PM, Mike.lifeguard

Post by Mike.lifeguard
I doubt the content is truly gone.

As I said on Meta-Wiki, it's not:
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Forum#Simple_English_Wikibooks_Deletion>