[Foundation-l] Fwd: Pt-Portuguese Wikipedia

Mon Mar 22 19:01:35 UTC 2010

Ever since Mark Williamson posted the message 
from Manuel Coutinho suggesting the creation of a 
new version of Wikipedia in Portuguese from 
Portugal, I have wondered if this list is the 
best place to discuss this matter.

This is a very serious and recurring issue:

2005: 
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_new_languages/Wikipedia_Brazilian_Portuguese

2006: 
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Requests_for_new_languages/Archives/2006-11#Discussion_of_the_poll_concerning_the_creation_of_an_European_Portuguese_Wikipedia

2007: 
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_new_languages/Wikipedia_European_Portuguese

It also causes a lot of conflicts and animosity. 
There are heated discussions, with passionate and 
inflammatory statements that lead to exaggeration and uncorroborated «truths».

Perhaps the reason the issue keeps popping up is 
that, although it has been extensively 
«discussed», it has not been properly addressed, much less solved.

Perhaps the question is not the creation of a new 
version of Wikipedia, but to make the Portuguese 
Wikipedia appealing to all readers and writers 
(editors) of the Portuguese language. There might 
be solutions and proposals to address this 
problem which have been kept from seeing the light of day, for untold reasons.

It might be worthwhile to open a page where the 
discussion could be centralized. It would be nice 
if the page could be bilingual, with one section 
in English, to open the discussion to the wider 
Wikimedia community, and another in Portuguese, 
for those who lack enough command of the English 
language to participate in the broader discussion.

If anyone would be so kind as to suggest what 
that page might be and where it could be created, 
I would be more than happy to participate. Some 
statements have already been made in this list that require clarification.

Sincerely,

Virgilio A. P. Machado