Proposal:American English Wikipedia

Status (see valid statuses)

The status of this proposal is:
Request for Discussion / Sign-Ups

Every proposal should be tied to one of the strategic priorities below.

Edit this page to help identify the priorities related to this proposal!


  1. Achieve continued growth in readership
  2. Focus on quality content
  3. Increase Participation
  4. Stabilize and improve the infrastructure
  5. Encourage Innovation



If not English, in what language is this proposal submitted?: American English

Summary

American English Wikipedia, similar to Proposal:A Brazilian Portuguese Wikipedia and other national forks such as the Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia.

Proposal

Create a new Wikipedia project consisting exclusively of American English, likely at en-us.wikipedia.org.

Motivation

Americans use a distinct dialect of English which differs from that used by other English speaking countries such as England, Canada, and Australia. The United States has over 300 million residents and many of them have computer access, so we can be assured a healthy base of contributors. The American English Wikipedia would also help preserve American culture, which is highly valued around the world (as evidenced by the success of American media). Arguments about spelling, grammar, and cultural biases occur frequently on English Wikipedia and would be diminished by such a split. Also— other national Wikipedia forks exist.

Key Questions

  • How will the loss of a majority of the editing base impact english-classic Wikipedia?

Potential Costs

A rough doubling of the storage costs for English language content on the Wikimedia servers.

Neutrality may be diminished by the decreased exposure to contrasting viewpoints, but this was not seen to be a significant enough factor in the creation of other similar Wikipedia forks. Because Americans enjoy considerable free speech and because American media is widely exported world wide, this should be somewhat less of a risk.

References

Community Discussion

Do you have a thought about this proposal? A suggestion? Discuss this proposal by going to Proposal Talk:American English Wikipedia.

Want to work on this proposal?

  1. Vibhijain 14:49, 8 May 2011 (UTC)
  2. .. Sign your name here!