Editing Wikisource (section)

==History==
The original concept for Wikisource was as storage for useful or important historical texts. These texts were intended to support [[Wikipedia]] articles, by providing primary evidence and original source texts, and as an archive in its own right. The collection was initially focused on important historical and cultural material, distinguishing it from other digital archives like Project Gutenberg.<ref name=ayersmatthewsyates />
[[File:Wikisourcelogo.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Composite photograph showing an iceberg both above and below the waterline.|The original Wikisource logo]]
The project was originally called Project Sourceberg during its planning stages (a play on words for Project Gutenberg).<ref name=ayersmatthewsyates />

In 2001, there was a dispute on Wikipedia regarding the addition of primary-source materials, leading to [[edit war]]s over their inclusion or deletion. Project Sourceberg was suggested as a solution to this. In describing the proposed project, user The Cunctator said, "It would be to Project Gutenberg what Wikipedia is to [[Nupedia]]",<ref name=Cunctator /> soon clarifying the statement with "we don't want to try to duplicate Project Gutenberg's efforts; rather, we want to complement them. Perhaps Project Sourceberg can mainly work as an interface for easily linking from Wikipedia to a Project Gutenberg file, and as an interface for people to easily submit new work to PG."<ref>{{cite web |author=The Cunctator |date=2001-10-16 |title=Primary sources Pedia, or Project Sourceberg |url=http://nostalgia.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_commentary/Project_Sourceberg&direction=prev&oldid=54333 |publisher=[[Wikipedia]] |access-date=2012-03-24 |archive-date=2018-11-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181120024745/https://nostalgia.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_commentary%2FProject_Sourceberg&direction=prev&oldid=54333 |url-status=live }}</ref> Initial comments were skeptical, with [[Larry Sanger]] questioning the need for the project, writing "The hard question, I guess, is why we are reinventing the wheel, when Project Gutenberg already exists? We'd want to complement Project Gutenberg&mdash;how, exactly?",<ref>{{cite web |last=Sanger |first=Larry |author-link=Larry Sanger |date=2001-10-17 |title=Primary sources Pedia, or Project Sourceberg |url=http://nostalgia.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_commentary/Project_Sourceberg&oldid=54338 |publisher=[[Wikipedia]] |access-date=2012-03-24 |archive-date=2022-04-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220409012446/https://nostalgia.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_commentary%2FProject_Sourceberg&oldid=54338 |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Jimmy Wales]] adding "like Larry, I'm interested that we think it over to see what we can add to Project Gutenberg. It seems unlikely that primary sources should in general be editable by anyone &mdash; I mean, Shakespeare is Shakespeare, unlike our commentary on his work, which is whatever we want it to be."<ref>{{cite web |last=Wales |first=Jimmy |author-link=Jimmy Wales |date=2001-10-17 |title=Primary sources Pedia, or Project Sourceberg |url=http://nostalgia.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_commentary/Project_Sourceberg&oldid=54338 |publisher=[[Wikipedia]] |access-date=2012-03-24 |archive-date=2022-04-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220409012446/https://nostalgia.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_commentary%2FProject_Sourceberg&oldid=54338 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The project began its activity at ps.wikipedia.org. The contributors understood the "PS" subdomain to mean either "primary sources" or Project Sourceberg.<ref name=Cunctator>{{cite web |author=The Cunctator |date=2001-10-16 |title=Primary sources Pedia, or Project Sourceberg |url=http://nostalgia.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_commentary/Project_Sourceberg&diff=prev&oldid=54331 |publisher=[[Wikipedia]] |access-date=2011-07-05 |archive-date=2016-03-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314191731/https://nostalgia.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_commentary%2FProject_Sourceberg&diff=prev&oldid=54331 |url-status=live }}</ref> However, this resulted in Project Sourceberg occupying the subdomain of the [[Pashto Wikipedia]] (the [[ISO 639-1|ISO language code]] of the [[Pashto language]] is "ps").

Project Sourceberg officially launched on November 24, 2003, when it received its own temporary URL, at sources.wikipedia.org, and all texts and discussions hosted on ps.wikipedia.org were moved to the temporary address. A vote on the project's name changed it to Wikisource on December 6, 2003. Despite the change in name, the project did not move to its permanent URL ([[oldwikisource:|http://wikisource.org/]]) until July 23, 2004.<ref>{{cite web |first=Tim |last=Starling |date=2004-07-23 |url=http://wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Wikisource:Scriptorium&diff=11750&oldid=11747 |title=Scriptorium |publisher=Wikisource |access-date=2011-07-05 |archive-date=2013-10-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131015060038/http://wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Wikisource:Scriptorium&diff=11750&oldid=11747 |url-status=live }}</ref>
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