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Revision as of 14:41, 23 October 2024

Page last updated: Wednesday 08 at 0630 UTC     

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Policies and guidelines and the Style guide contain or link to most of the current en.Wikinews policies and guidelines, however policy is based on the accepted practices of the day on Wikinews, often these might not be written down. This section of the Water cooler focuses on discussions regarding policy issues.

You may wish to check the archives to see if a subject has been raised previously.


Update of license


This conversation has been marked for the community's attention. Please remove the {{flag}} when the discussion is complete or no longer important.


Some time ago there was a discussion on meta about how to implement the license update to CC BY-SA 4.0 on all wikis. See m:Meta:Babel/Archives/2023-06#Aftermath_of_ToU_updates.

Wikinews use the license CC BY 2.5. So it does not have the SA part and it is an older version.

I would like to ask why Wikinews does not follow WMF and most other wiki projects. Is there a good reason or is it simply because noone thought about updating the license?

Unless there is a good reason I suggest to update the license to follow WMF. --MGA73 (talk) 16:05, 9 November 2023 (UTC)Reply

The goal was that Wikinews would be easy to share. That hasn't really happened, but that's the idea. :/ —Justin (koavf)TCM 16:07, 9 November 2023 (UTC)Reply
Thank you, that makes sense because CC BY is less restrictive than CC BY-SA. However with the update of the Terms of Use users agree to license their contributions as CC BY-SA 4.0. So I think that at least all new content should be licensed under that license because I do not think that it is possible just to remove the "SA".
If the license do not make it easier to share then I do not think there are any good arguments to keep the less restrictive license for older text. Anyway if someone have allready legally shared the text they can continue to do so even if the license is changed so it should not give any problems to change license for older text too. --MGA73 (talk) 14:54, 10 November 2023 (UTC)Reply
But, "The only exception [to using CC BY-SA 4.0 or GFDL] is if the Project edition or feature requires a different license. In that case, you agree to license any text you contribute under the particular license prescribed by the Project edition or the feature." I'm struggling to see why we would voluntarily take on that load of work...to make it harder for people to reuse our content, as we want them to. Heavy Water (talk) 17:02, 10 November 2023 (UTC)Reply
Beause the mission of the wiki-family is to make knowledge free for everyone and make sure knowledge stays free. Wikipedia uses CC BY-SA 4.0 and that does not seems to be a problem. Wikipedia have grown and is one of the worlds most used websites.
One of the exceptions I know of is wikidata where the data is CC0. Then there is also fair use in some cases but that is not valid for wikimedians to use on own work only for work created by other. I do not know of any other exceptions and reasons.
I wonder if there are any known examples where someone said they would no re-use wikinews if the license was BY-SA instead of BY. Anyone have examples? --MGA73 (talk) 08:48, 11 November 2023 (UTC)Reply
Very unlikely, as Wikinews is very obscure. There have been times about 15 years ago when I saw Wikinews reproduced in the wild, but it's not common today, for sure. —Justin (koavf)TCM 20:43, 11 November 2023 (UTC)Reply
To me that sounds like there is no longer any real problem using BY-SA. Another question not yet discussed is why use 2.5 instead of 4.0. --MGA73 (talk) 15:40, 1 December 2023 (UTC)Reply
Agreed. I don't see any reason for us to use a different license than the other WMF projects and would support a change. I don't feel strongly enough that I would oppose the status quo, tho. —Justin (koavf)TCM 16:02, 1 December 2023 (UTC)Reply

┌─────────────────────────────────┘
So how to move forward? Should there be a formal vote? --MGA73 (talk) 11:54, 14 December 2023 (UTC)Reply

I vote yes to a vote. —Justin (koavf)TCM 12:12, 14 December 2023 (UTC)Reply
Thank you User:Koavf. I'm not very familiar with wikinews so I'm not sure how to do this. But I think I have to go to Wikinews:Polls and add a link to Wikinews:Update license poll and then make a suggestion at that page. Is that correct? If you would like to assist you are very welcome to make the proposal. --MGA73 (talk) 12:52, 14 December 2023 (UTC)Reply
I think just posting here would be sufficient, because as you can see, that page hasn't been edited in almost 15 years: https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Wikinews:Polls&action=historyJustin (koavf)TCM 12:58, 14 December 2023 (UTC)Reply
User:Koavf, Okay I have prepared the poll below. I will add {{poll}} soon but perhaps you could have a look at it first? Is anything missing? --MGA73 (talk) 19:25, 14 December 2023 (UTC)Reply
Not from my perspective. Thanks. —Justin (koavf)TCM 19:42, 14 December 2023 (UTC)Reply



Non-admin or non-bureaucrat closure?

Does it say anywhere that it has to be an admin or a bureaucrat that have to close a vote? If not perhaps another trusted user can close this vote?

Or should we just wait and see? Or perhaps just give up and maybe try on meta? What do you think? --MGA73 (talk) 16:23, 14 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

I'm not sure about requirements for closing a general vote. I do know that it is implied that only admins should close a vote for Wikinews:Deletion_requests.
Either way, we need an admin to make the edits to edit-protected pages before we can proceed. Even if we vote on a date and close the vote, without an admin, we'll miss the date. —Michael.C.Wright (Talk/Published) 17:11, 14 August 2024 (UTC)Reply
Yes an admin needs to edit the pages that are protected. But if a vote is closed in a valid way then I see no reasons why admins should not help make the changes. If the change has to happen on a specific time and date and no admins are active at that time then we could perhaps ask for help on meta. --MGA73 (talk) 17:42, 14 August 2024 (UTC)Reply
I can find no explicit requirement that an admin must close polls and I have asked an admin.[8] We also don't have any active admin at the moment who are willing to engage in this project, despite requests by both myself and MGA73.[9], [10], [11], [12], [13]
This is not meant to 'call out' anyone or point fingers in blame. It is merely meant to demonstrate that we have done our due diligence seeking help locally before seeking help from Meta. It is understood that this is a project of volunteers.
I propose we close the polling/voting section tomorrow, August 22nd with the following conclusion:

A vote was used to guide discussion and gauge consensus, not to define it. Based on the Sum up per March, 2024,[14] there is general consensus for Yes, WN upgrade to CC-BY-4.0 if the the other WN also upgrade. After formally concluding the consensus-making process, a deadline for upgrading to CC-BY-4.0 is set for October 1, 2024.

I am willing to close sections 1.1 through 1.8 using the {{archive-top}} and {{archive-bottom}} convention, leaving section 1.9; "Comments from other wikis" open for continued project management.
Are there any objections or further feedback? —Michael.C.Wright (Talk/Published) 16:08, 21 August 2024 (UTC)Reply
Thank you. I doubt it will be possible to make ALL the other WN to upgrade too because some are almost dead. It might help if we send out a final notice to all projects that "English WN have decided to change license per 1st xxx 2024 provided the at least x other WN also change license. So please leave a notice at <link to 1.9> if your WN will also change." --MGA73 (talk) 16:16, 21 August 2024 (UTC)Reply
So is the requirement for enwikinews to change that the other languages change to CC-BY-4.0 or only that they update to the newest version and change to BY-SA-4.0? Best regards, --Ankermast (talk) 16:25, 21 August 2024 (UTC)Reply
@Ankermast, I don't believe there is a strict requirement in either direction. En.WN can't mandate actions from other projects, and I don't think anyone is attempting to do so (at least I hope not). Hopefully other projects share that view. As I understand it, the goal is to ensure that content can be easily shared and/or translated between projects and beyond. There is general consensus that using SA is not compatible with projects that do not use SA. En.WN chose not to implement SA, as it was understood to create additional barriers to sharing. En.WN would like to make content as shareable as possible.
@MGA73, are you reading "Yes, WN upgrade to CC-BY-4.0 if the the other WN also upgrade" as a requirement for other WN to upgrade? I don't see where we discussed at any length what constitutes or satisfies 'other WN also upgrading.' In hindsight, maybe we should have. Should we clarify the closing conclusion to something like the following?

A vote was used to guide discussion and gauge consensus, not to define it. Based on the Sum up per March, 2024,[15] there is general consensus for Yes, WN upgrade to CC-BY-4.0 if the the other WN also upgrade. After formally concluding the consensus-making process, a deadline for upgrading English Wikinews to CC-BY-4.0 is set for October 1, 2024 to allow other active projects to determine how and what CC version to upgrade to.

Michael.C.Wright (Talk/Published) 19:05, 21 August 2024 (UTC)Reply
@Michael.C.Wright Could you please confirm if this conclusion is finalized? Kitabc12345 (talk) 20:04, 26 August 2024 (UTC)Reply
I am now waiting for the two conversations that recently re-kindled in sections 1.2 and 1.4 to come to a conclusion. If @Acagastya is okay with where the conversation is in 1.2, then I think we can close sections 1.1 through 1.8 (which will effectively close the poll, even for additional comments). Acagastya is an administrator, so their input in both the conversation as well as the question of who and how to close the poll would be valuable. I don't want to jump the gun on closing it nor make a procedural error by closing it as a non-admin, though I don't see that as a requirement—I could be missing something. —Michael.C.Wright (Talk/Published) 13:50, 27 August 2024 (UTC)Reply
I have closed the voting sections above. I previously assumed {{archive-top}} allowed for comments or explanations for the closing but it doesn't. @Gryllida, would you have time over the next few days to work through the list of edit-protected pages[16] that need to be updated by an admin? @MGA73, have there been any updates on your side or with the other projects? Has anyone completed their upgrade? Is there anything else we can do on our side to move forward? Thanks again for helping! —Michael.C.Wright (Talk/Published) 14:06, 3 October 2024 (UTC)Reply
@Michael.C.Wright I have not worked on this since my latest comment here. Per https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/source/mediawiki-config/browse/master/wmf-config/InitialiseSettings.php$10878 and below ar.wikinews changed to cc-by-sa-4.0 and hu.wikinews use cc-by-3.0 (they have for a long time) and the rest still use cc-by-2.5.
I think to move forward you or Gryllida have to make a formal closure that "It has been decided that xxx". After that we can then a) make a RFC on meta for all wikis and/or b) start a vote on all versions on wikinews about the possible license change. --MGA73 (talk) 15:54, 3 October 2024 (UTC)Reply
As it seems not clear when all the language versions can agree on updating their license, German Wikinews will update by itself after a final acknowledgement by the community. Regards --Ankermast (talk) 05:15, 4 October 2024 (UTC)Reply
You can put a closing comment straight after "archive-top" followed by your signature and a line break. I will check what needs to be done by me within next three days or so. Gryllida (talk) 18:55, 3 October 2024 (UTC)Reply

Comments from other wikis

Note: I think it makes sense to collect all the comments from the other wikis here. --Ankermast (talk) 19:38, 20 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

German: Hi everyone, I can tell you that there is interest in an update for German Wikinews, which has already been discussed. There are still some doubts about the documentation obligation, though. Best regards, --Ankermast (talk) 19:38, 20 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

Thank you Ankermast. Can you link to the discussion? I thought of listing discussions/results on User:MGA73/Licenseupgrade but here is also fine. About documentation I do not know if m:Terms_of_use/Creative_Commons_4.0/Legal_note#Mechanism_for_the_upgrade can help? --MGA73 (talk) 19:48, 20 August 2024 (UTC)Reply
The proposal is discussed below your message from May: n:de:Wikinews:Pressestammtisch#Update of license to cc-by-4.0. Ankermast (talk) 19:52, 20 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

Arabic: Per the vote on ar:ويكي_الأخبار:الميدان#مقترح_تحديث_رخصة_ويكي_الأخبار They will change to Cc-by-sa-4.0. --MGA73 (talk) 19:57, 20 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

The have changed per phab:T372730. --MGA73 (talk) 15:20, 21 August 2024 (UTC)Reply
Does this mean that all articles are also licensed retroactively? Best regards, Ankermast (talk) 20:23, 21 August 2024 (UTC)Reply
As I understand m:Terms_of_use/Creative_Commons_4.0/Legal_note#Mechanism_for_the_upgrade then only new edits are licensed 4.0. Existing text is still 2.5 (or PD if it is very old). --MGA73 (talk) 21:06, 21 August 2024 (UTC)Reply
I asked because it is not shown that the earlier texts were contributed under 2.5. Ankermast (talk) 21:09, 21 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

Polish: The poll on whether the license should be changed is going to end today. --Ankermast (talk) 20:01, 20 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

We have it Kajtus von Rzywiec (talk) 01:08, 21 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

Chinese: Seems to be positive about a change to cc-by-4.0. But perhaps User:Kitabc12345 can give an update? --MGA73 (talk) 20:14, 20 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

Esperanto: ni estas por VladimirPF (talk) 21:11, 20 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

Thank you VladimirPF! Do you have a link to the discussion? --MGA73 (talk) 05:11, 21 August 2024 (UTC)Reply
La diskuto estis ekster vikinovaĵoj ĉar ĉe ni aktivas malmultaj personoj. Tamen, se estas bezonata mi povas organizi la diskuton kaj peti voĉdoni. VladimirPF (talk) 08:57, 21 August 2024 (UTC)Reply
Thank you. I do not need a discussion but I do not know if it is needed for a change in phabricator. --MGA73 (talk) 11:42, 21 August 2024 (UTC)Reply
VladimirPF Please check m:Requesting wiki configuration changes. I think the best is to start an on wiki discussion to meet the requirements. --MGA73 (talk) 15:24, 21 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

Can we request a license change for other wikis?

I have noticed that on m:Requesting_wiki_configuration_changes#How_to_request_a_change #3 it says “In the case of a very small and low-activity community, it should be enough to show that you have tried to gain consensus, and that you have given an opportunity for objections.”

I have send messages to all wikis suggesting an update (see User:MGA73/Licenseupgrade) and on many wikis there were no response and therefore no objections. However I think before we can request a license update for other Wikinews there should at least be a more clear message in local language.

What do you think? Could that be an option to make sure that WN will have the same license after an upgrade?

In case any WN do not wish to upgrade they can very easily avoid that by simply saying "No". --MGA73 (talk) 17:51, 23 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

We should point out that the hurdle to change is quite low for small communities (as this is the case for many Wikinews wikis). Ankermast (talk) 18:06, 23 August 2024 (UTC)Reply
By the way: Would it be okay if I updated the list in your namespace? Ankermast (talk) 18:08, 23 August 2024 (UTC)Reply
Yes please do! --MGA73 (talk) 18:09, 23 August 2024 (UTC)Reply
I'm considering requesting modifications to the copyright agreements for different language versions of Wikinews that we have already given an opportunity to oppose. The challenge is how to indicate on their own Wikis that "previous articles were published under the old agreement" in their own language. Additionally, we have provided ample time for them to express any objections, but I believe we could use machine translation or AI translation to communicate this in their original language. After all, some of the non-responsive Wikinews versions likely have inactive communities. The worst-case scenario is that these projects could be closed by Meta-Wiki. Kitabc12345 (talk) 06:58, 26 August 2024 (UTC)Reply
It is recommended that open a global RFC on metawiki and send a notification again. If there is no objection, then the global community can force an update of the license on these wikis. Thanks. SCP-2000 (talk) 08:39, 26 August 2024 (UTC)Reply
Kitabc12345 and SCP-2000 Yes it may be the best way to do it on meta. I have not thought much of a wording of such an RFC but it could be something like "All Wikinews change to cc-by-4.0 on October 15, 2024 unless a wiki specifically choses otherwise. Vote will end at October 1." Any Wikinews that does not want to change to cc-by-4.0 can then just say "XX-Wikinews have decided to stay at cc-by-2.5 / change to cc-by-sa-4.0 per <link>." I do not know if 1 month to vote is enough and if 15 days after that is enough to change all Wikinews but whoever make the RFC can decide :-) --MGA73 (talk) 11:20, 26 August 2024 (UTC)Reply
I support this proposal. Kitabc12345 (talk) 12:27, 26 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

Comment from Gryllida

Comment Side note, I saw this and postponed it in my mind given the more urgent task of publishing. May take more than a day to resolve. Your help copyediting new submissions, helping others copyedit, and adding (and discussing) Reviewer nominations is welcome. I hope the licensing discussion can wait till then. Gryllida (talk) 12:05, 30 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

Gryllida I agree that there are lots of urgent tasks. I do not think that the problem is that things go too fast. The discussion about reviewing is almost three months old and the discussion about licensing is about ten months old. The discussion at Wikinews:Deletion_requests#August_11,_2023 is almost thirteen months old.
I think that in all of those discussions then whoever have strong opinions about the matter have allready said what they would like to say. My suggestion will be to make a conclusion like "Based on the discussion I will close this as <whatever> unless someone provide a good argument against before <date>". And then give like one or two weeks to make new arguments. Worst case someone thinks it is a bad idea and they request more time to discuss.
If you do not feel like closing the deletion request and/or the licensing discussion because you would rather spend your time on other matters you could also ask Michael.C.Wright to go ahead. --MGA73 (talk) 19:13, 8 September 2024 (UTC)Reply
@MGA73 at what stage are we? The Polish language version is waiting for the decision of the English version. Kajtus von Rzywiec (talk) 20:58, 3 October 2024 (UTC)Reply
Hi Kajtus von Rzywiec. I think we are close but per Wikinews:Water_cooler/policy#Non-admin_or_non-bureaucrat_closure? we just need for the final closure to be made. After that I think next step will be an efford to make the changes on all versions of wikinews. But for that to happen we need a date for the change of license. --MGA73 (talk) 06:06, 4 October 2024 (UTC)Reply
Ok, thanks for your answer. I keep my fingers crossed that the process will go smoothly Kajtus von Rzywiec (talk) 12:51, 4 October 2024 (UTC)Reply