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Proposals for closing projects/Closure of Wikimedia Macedonia

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This is a proposal for closing and/or deleting a wiki hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. It is subject to the current closing projects policy.

The proposal is rejected and the project will be kept open.

  • A Language Committee member provided the following comment:
    Only comment from any LangCom member (either here or on the mailing list) was from MF-W, who was opposed. It doesn't look like there has been trouble on the wiki, and the chapter may become active again before long. So there isn't really a need to close it.
  • @Liuxinyu970226: Please go to wmmk: and mark the proposal as closed.
  • @Kiril Simeonovski: Please visit periodically to keep an eye on things. If the negotiations run much longer, consider whether or not a site notice, as suggested below, might be a good idea.
For LangCom:StevenJ81 (talk) 16:20, 13 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

This chapter, as announced here, is derecognized. The last active campaign was happened in June 2013 which is fairly old, and however its spam edits e.g. wmmk:Специјална:Придонеси/46.217.113.3 are even no longer happened since Jan 2014, thus like Wikipedia 10, WMNZ and Strategywiki before, I request to sunset this wiki for the time being. --Liuxinyu970226 (talk) 12:36, 2 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

  • Oppose The inactivity of Wikimedia Macedonia has come as a result of the mass departure of the active membership from the organisation by the end of 2013 following a conflict with the 'sacrosanct' president who had full control of the documentation and unwillingness to collaborate with the rest of the members. The dissatisfied membership that departed from the chapter has established a new organisation with the name Shared Knowledge, which has replaced Wikimedia Macedonia in March 2014 and has been recognised as a user group in February 2015. The negotiations between the Executive Board of Shared Knowledge and the Affiliations Committee on derecognising Wikimedia Macedonia and subsequently recognising Shared Knowledge as a replacement with the right to use the name 'Wikimedia Macedonia' have been in place since 2014. They have been successful so far because Shared Knowledge filed application for the status of a local chapter in February 2017 (i.e. after fulfilling the criterion of minimum two years of activity as a user group and thus becoming eligible to apply for a chapter status) and the inactive Wikimedia Macedonia's chapter agreement was not renewed in September 2017 and thus it was derecognised as a local chapter. The most recent correspondence on the Shared Knowledge's application has unveiled the information that the process is closely approaching its conclusion in the first half of 2018. That said, once Shared Knowledge gets legal recognition as a local chapter by the Wikimedia Foundation with the right to rename to 'Wikimedia Macedonia', the organisation will migrate its content from Meta and the Macedonian Wikipedia to the wiki. I consider this a good-faith proposal as the proposer might have not been aware about the case of Wikimedia Macedonia and the most recent developments.--Kiril Simeonovski (talk) 18:45, 2 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
@Kiril Simeonovski: Kiril, do you have any idea how long it might be before these negotiations are complete? If you think it might be another year, maybe we should lock the wiki until your team is ready to take it over. If it will be only another couple of months, then we should probably leave it alone. StevenJ81 (talk) 20:30, 2 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
@StevenJ81: I think this question should be addressed to the members of the Affiliations Committee. The last update from them came in November 2017 with an anticipated date for completing the review of mid-January 2018. Apart from the negotiation process, I do not see how closing or locking this wiki contributes to the 'sum of all knowledge'. Can you please expound of what would be the value added from that closure, when that wiki still contains some useful pages that might be helpful for our work?--Kiril Simeonovski (talk) 20:46, 2 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
@Kiril Simeonovski: Closed/locked wikis are still accessible. You can read (and even copy) all the content. Closed wikis just can't be edited by anyone (except for stewards and system administrators). So the reason to lock a wiki in this case would be that there is not really a group authorized to edit it, because there is no official "Wikimedia Macedonia" right now. StevenJ81 (talk) 20:54, 2 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
@StevenJ81: That is fine, but the reasoning that the wiki should be closed because no Wikimedia Macedonia exists is a very delicate issue. I think it would be better to wait for an update from the Affiliations Committee before making any changes.--Kiril Simeonovski (talk) 21:00, 2 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
I see no reason for closing, especially not if the wiki might need to be reopened in the foreseeable future. --MF-W 13:52, 10 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  • Hmm, tricky. Wikimedia Macedonia technically exists as long as it does not disolve itself or is disolved by the competent authority according to the law. On the other hand, if derecognized, hosting this on a .*wikimedia.org domain might be confusing as this chapter no longer has the avail of the Wikimedia Foundation. As the AffCom chair said (see Liux link above: "Recognition as a Wikimedia movement affiliate — a chapter, thematic organization, or user group — is a privilege that allows an independent group to officially use the Wikimedia trademarks to further the Wikimedia mission." Locking the wiki would not resolve the issue, but locking it and putting on the site notice that WM-MK is no longer recognized by the AffCom, etc. may be a desired approach. Thanks, —MarcoAurelio (talk) 21:44, 10 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
    On the other hand, if discussions are ongoing to swift Shared Knowledge to WM-MK, etc, as Kiril Smeonovski mentions, maybe it is not worth the process. —MarcoAurelio (talk) 21:50, 10 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Do we need an opinion from Legal? StevenJ81 (talk) 21:56, 10 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Frankly, they can close the wiki if needed. --MF-W 23:16, 10 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

A question for you, Kiril Simeonovski, if you don't mind:

  • When was this wiki last edited (leaving aside Liuxinyu's announcement of this proposal)?

StevenJ81 (talk) 18:45, 11 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The last recorded activity on the wiki was in November 2013, which is immediately before the departure of Wikimedia Macedonia's membership.--Kiril Simeonovski (talk) 21:43, 11 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you, Kiril. So it doesn't really look like anyone's been trying to cause problems there lately, and it's not hurting anyone for it to stay open. So I'll let this run another day or two, but I think we're probably going to reject this proposal.
Kiril, since you have a sysop flag over there, just please keep an eye on things. If any really substantial vandalism ever starts to appear, please ping me and request a temporary lock. Reasonable? StevenJ81 (talk) 22:02, 11 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, sure. I use to get a glimpse of the wiki from time to time and it has not ever been subject to any vandalism.--Kiril Simeonovski (talk) 22:13, 11 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
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