MW update
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When would be a good time to do an MW update? I think we should decide on a day and then do an update once every month, sort of like patch Tuesday.
If you're busy I can handle it myself, I just wanted to check with you first.
Saturdays are usually are deadest days, want to do something like the last Saturday of the month? Should we get rwbeta back up and running?
Yeah, something like that. Just so people know in advance when to expect it. I probably can't make it this saturday though.
Just let me know, I will spin out rwbeta just so we can make sure something hasn't snuck into the update to cause problems.
I'd also like to set up a russian version of RW, as a trial. I'm still thinking it through, but basically it'd be symlinked to RW's mediawiki and use interwiki transclusion and RW as an external upload directory.
I have some concerns about separate language wikis on a meta level. My main concern is that they become small isolated communities with little to no integration back with the main site. It kinda sucks to work on a wiki where you are the only one editing. While categorized pages here aren't ideal I like that users involved in the construction of the articles are directly in the middle of the existing community, getting welcome templates, and "thanks for your work!" style talk page comments that they likely wouldn't get on a separate wiki. It also creates a bit of serendipitous feedback of people with either no interest in another language wiki but who know the language or people that only know a little of the language being able to make minor corrections or suggestions, or even catching a potential parodist.
I share Trent's view here to some degree, but it's a little chicken and egg.
How can a non-English RW take off and attract a new group of dedicated editors if it isn't given the freedom to move to its own site? But at the same time, how can it justify a move to its own site before it takes off and attracts a group of dedicated editors? (!)
However, if Nx suggests it as a trial, I'd be for that. We'd want to see how it works, how ru.RW would integrate (or not) with en.RW and whether a dedicated language would attract new users. After all, we've already pointed out that the start of a project is always the most exciting for people. It could well be that offering this blank slate could stimulate considerable interest.
I am certainly not shutting down the idea merely expressing concerns I have over it. I initially turned down the idea when it was first proposed because I wasn't even sure we would get anything. But there are now a couple different languages represented on RW. Ideally there is some ingenious technological fix to bridge the communities a bit.