Proposals for closing projects/Closure of cnwikimedia

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 for closing wmcn: is accepted and the proposed actions should be taken.


  • Type: 2 (non-routine proposal)
  • Proposed outcome: closure
  • Proposed action regarding the content: stay at current place
  • Notice on the project: N/A since this is a fishbowl wiki
  • Informed Group(s): Wikimedia User Group China

This proposal aims to close site cn.wikimedia.org, a fishbowl wiki affiliated to Wikimedia user group Wikimedia User Group China.

Proposal edit

Approved by Affiliations Committee in 2014-07, Wikimedia User Group China is a user group based in Mainland China. It organized various online/offline campaigns, Wiki Loves Monuments, local meetups and other activities, has indeed made significant contributions to the development of Chinese Wikipedia. However, for many reasons, including the changes of the NGO policy in China, this user group gradually became inactive and eventually the recognition status was revoked by Affiliations Committee in 2020-09-30, due to "Group Affiliation status expired". The subject of this proposal, the website cn.wikimedia.org (wmcn), was requested by the aforementioned user group in 2015-05 as "a window to the general public", and was created in the same month. Since the current recognition status of this user group has been revoked, I believe this affiliated site should be closed.

Most chapters and some user groups recognized by the Affiliations Committee may request their own fishbowl sites for various purposes like bringing advantages to their organization etc. Now, we have less than 40 sites for chapters/user groups (data from dblists/wikimedia.dblist). Some of them are taken good care of, while some of them are less active. Further, two of them have been closed for various reasons, which makes this proposal seem like it doesn't have much precedent to follow. One of them is the website used by the chapter Wikimedia New Zealand (nz.wikimedia.org), which was closed in 2012 followed by a proposal. Another one is the website used by the chapter Wikimedia Pennsylvania (pa-us.wikimedia.org), however, I failed to find a discussion and there is only a patch link available as reason. Both chapters are no longer recognized, so I believe it is reasonable to derive the conclusion that once the recognition status of a chapter/user group got revoked, their affiliated wiki site should be closed.

This is the end of my proposal. Stang 20:29, 8 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Reminding message has been left on the talk page of user group Wikimedia User Group China.
There is already a relevant Phabricator ticket opened. Stang 20:36, 8 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
cc Former Coordinators and Supervisors of Wikimedia User Group China @AddisWang, 人神之间, 乌拉跨氪, Fantasticfears, Zhxy 519, Bencmq, Shizhao, and Mountain: SCP-2000 13:07, 11 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion edit