Wikimedia-wide WikiProjects (narrow focus)

That's not a problem at this level. Take Israel-Palestine. Ideally:

  • The global WikiProject self regulates to support and assist on those projects.
  • There may (and probably will) be separate Israel and Palestine global WikiProjects too, for those narrower focus areas.
  • The global WikiProjects support editors and try to keep the topic areas running smoothly, as WikiProjects do.
  • If an editor is disruptive then other editors step in.
  • If a user active on the global WikiProject is disruptive they can be removed from it - this doesnt block them or change their editing, it just means the Global Wikiproject can avoid problems due to their involvement at the Global WikiProject itself.
  • If the Global WikiProject is divided, or there's lack of clarity, the Global WikiProject council can be asked to decide the matter, on the basis that members of unconnected WikiProjects will probably be neutral enough to help them sort it out.
  • The entire system is by mutual respect - the only actual "power" any of these bodies have is to do their work of co-ordinating topic areas (which can be heeded or ignored on any given project) and self-regulate somewhat if they become divisive internally.
FT2 (Talk | email)17:43, 22 December 2009

I do not think it is as easy. I know for instance on en.wp it is very difficult to say smth reasonable concerning modern Russian history since there are teams consisting of Eastern European users which just create the illusion of vast majority and under this illusion pot POV in the articles. But I guess we recognize that this is a globasl problem and we can not provide any detailed recommendations to address it. We just note that it does not concern too many projects.

Yaroslav Blanter18:02, 22 December 2009
 

I'd rather think that the problems in those areas are due to teams sponsored by certain governments and organizations with the aim of pushing certain POVs and discrediting their opponents - but this is rather off topic here. Having written that, I do however think that organized interference from various organizations is going to become an increasing problem; it is obvious that the current system is very vulnerable to this problem - but I have not a clue how to deal with this threat.

Back on subject raised here. Encouraging WikiProject activity is a good idea, if hardly revolutionary. Those that work well on wiki, well, they work well, and their growth should be encouraged. I'd suggest a study to identify the most successful ones, see what makes them work, and develop a set of good practices for others to follow based on their example.

Piotrus23:37, 28 December 2009