Wikipedia talk:Follow English Wikipedia

Purpose of this policy

I appreciate your effort that you are helping to build a good encyclopedia. But I think this policy may weaken the uniqueness of Simple English Wikipedia. No doubt that all wikipedias are under one umbrella organization, but still Simple English Wikipedia and English Wikipedia are different. I think this policy will look like that we are a child project of the big wikipedia. But we are not child project, big wikipedia is not our parent project. We are unique and different from big wikipedia. So we should not follow any other wiki, but if necessary we can create much more policies and guidelines in big wikipedia style. Please don't take it offensively, I am just suggesting my opinion. Please consider it. Thank you. --Otolemur crassicaudatus (talk) 17:27, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

I dunno, I've always thought of the English Wikipedia as our big brother, because...unlike (nearly) every other wiki, we write in the same language. I agree that we are different and unique and that we should only inherit the most basic, behavioral policies (like CIVIL, NPA, NLT), because when I pitched the Pokémon articles to the en Pokémon WikiProject, I said a great boon would be that we wouldn't be constrained to the policies of FICT, IINFO, and PLOT that has hampered development of the en Pokémon species articles. Cassandra 17:48, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps it should be mentioned in this proposal that we first follow the policy as written on Meta and then look to the en.wp for guidance; we view the policies as guidelines on en.wp to be guidelines here (not policy) until such a time that we codify our own positions. How does that sound? Cheers! Bstone (talk) 18:14, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

I don't think this is a good idea. We are our own Wikipedia and should not copy the behavior of other Wikipedias.--  † ChristianMan16  19:33, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

I don't think we should copy and paste guidelines and policies from the English Wikipedia, but I think using their existing precedent as a guide is a good idea- at least until we can codify our own opinions. Thoughts? Cheers! Bstone (talk) 19:59, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

I do not believe that this is a good idea. People should use common sense when editing this Wikipedia. If something doesn't seem like a good idea, then chances are, it probably isn't a good idea. Just use common sense for those situations that arise that the Simple English Wikipedia doesn't have a guideline for and follow it. Cheers, Razorflame 22:48, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Common sense is an excellent idea. However many people do not use common sense or have a lack of it. BLPs are a particular issue as they can lead to claims of libel and slander, both of which are actionable in the court system. While it's highly unlikely that such a thing will happen as a result of a Simple BLP, it's at least a good idea to have some bare-minimum guideline laid out. Using the English Wikipedia as a guide- not policy- is a good idea until we can codify our own opinions. Comments? Cheers! Bstone (talk) 23:03, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

My theory is that many questions on WP:ST are related to policies that are not on Simple Wikipedia yet, and the answer is almost inevitably "do what en says if we don't have it locally". So we may as well have a policy to go with it. Microchip 07:48, Wednesday, June 18 2008 Utc

(unindenting) Have a policy to get editors to refer to enWP rules as guidelines? My, that's confusing. Chenzw  Talk  08:04, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Gah. You is right. Microchip 08:27, Wednesday, June 18 2008 Utc

How about simply...

"Simple English Wikipedia is small. It doesn't have many rules yet. If you are not sure what to do, because a rule on Simple English Wikipedia does not say how to do something, use English Wikipedia to point you in the right direction." Microchip 08:30, Wednesday, June 18 2008 Utc

I think that theere should be something relating to common sense in there somewheres. Cheers, Razorflame 08:33, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

"Simple English Wikipedia is small. It doesn't have many rules yet. If you are not sure what to do, because a rule on Simple English Wikipedia does not say how to do something, use English Wikipedia to point you in the right direction. Make sure you use common sense and make sure the rules you are using to guide yourself are relevant to what you are trying to do." Microchip 08:37, Wednesday, June 18 2008 Utc

For now, that seems to be sufficient for our purposes here, but I think that we should wait for what other people think about it. Cheers, Razorflame 08:44, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

I think that Microchip's latest version is a good one. Question: Is there a "essay" template on Simple like there is on en? Bstone (talk) 09:20, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Yes. Microchip 10:13, Wednesday, June 18 2008 Utc