[Foundation-l] Re: new language policy

Mon Nov 21 21:27:03 UTC 2005

Anthere wrote:

>
> then, I suppose you would rather support the idea of letting new 
> languages develop on a seed wiki... and see to which point it is viable ?
>
> This still raise the issue of "when do we consider a language should 
> be removed from the seed wiki and put in the live wiki" (even though 
> the entire content might be a hoax :-)) ?
>
> Ant 

Why do it difficult with seedwiki's. Give languages a chance on a real 
wiki for say three months. If they haven't created 100 articles of some 
length by then (so not 1 line, but lets say approx 10 lines at least) we 
lock them. Also make a requirement that a new language has one "adopter" 
an experienced wikipedian that regardless if he speaks the language or 
not will guide the new wikipedians on the pad of NPOV etc. And who will 
be a preliminary admin so he will be able to kick vandalism. This should 
be a commitment by that person. If the adopter fails the commitment and 
the wiki gets spammed out of existence we lock it. Also an adopter 
shouldn't be able to adopt more than one language at the same time.

By doing this you help a language to seriously start up and give people 
in the fledgling community someone to learn from. The adopter could even 
help think of a strategy to make the fledgling wikipedia reach at least 
100 articles of reasonable quality.

This way we can ensure a language gets a serious chance. If the native 
speakers of that language do not take that chance we lock the pedia. 
Plain and simple.

Give people a fair chance. Do not make a decision by voting. If there 
are a couple of people (could be even one very active person) who claim 
they speak the lingo and an experienced wikipedian willing to adopt the 
language give it a chance. This is equal opportunity. Everyone gets a 
shot. If you blow it you blow it and your next requests will not be 
taken seriously!

Waerth/Walter