Tell us about Latvian Wikipedia

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Latvian Wikipedia

• Latvian (Latviešu) – lv

Questionnaire

Contributors

• Wikimedia Statistics can be difficult to interpret. What is your impression, how many steady contributors do you have?
  • Some 25-30, 14 of which are administrators. --SpeedKing 18:23, 28 August 2008 (UTC)
  • There are like 20 very active Wikipedians and several less active ~~Xil...(talk) 19:44, 28 August 2008 (UTC)
• Are your contributors mostly native speakers?
  • Yes, some are Latvians from other countries or, say, Latvian Russians. --SpeedKing 18:23, 28 August 2008 (UTC)
  • Yes, I think 90% ~~Xil...(talk) 19:44, 28 August 2008 (UTC)
• Where do your contributors live (regions/country)?
  • Mostly in Latvia. --SpeedKing 18:23, 28 August 2008 (UTC)
• How common is it that your contributors meet in real life?
  • AFAIK, some of them have met. I have never met another Wikipedia user in real life. --SpeedKing 18:23, 28 August 2008 (UTC)
  • While some may have met, I think it is not common. I have never met other Wikipedians and don't intend to ~~Xil...(talk) 19:44, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

Other Wikipedias

• Do you have special contacts with another Wikipedias (maybe in related languages)?
  • No. Some contributors were also working for the failed Latgalian Wikipedia project.--SpeedKing 18:23, 28 August 2008 (UTC)
  • No, though some users contribute to other Wikipedias too. ~~Xil...(talk) 19:44, 28 August 2008 (UTC)
• Do you translate a lot from other Wikipedias? Which ones?
  • Yes, from the English Wikipedia. --SpeedKing 18:23, 28 August 2008 (UTC)
  • I sometimes translate from Englsh Wikipedia, I know some users translate from other Wikipedias (like Russian) as well ~~Xil...(talk) 19:44, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

Organization and support

• Is there a Wikimedia chapter in your country? How does your language relate to it?
  • No ~~Xil...(talk) 19:44, 28 August 2008 (UTC)
• Are there work groups in other organizations about Wikipedia?
  • One of our contributors (a teacher) once ran a school project. --SpeedKing 18:23, 28 August 2008 (UTC)
  • Maybe, but they haven't tried to cooperate with us ~~Xil...(talk) 19:44, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

Your Wikipedia and the linguistic community

• Is there a language institution for your language, like an Academy, or a club of people interested in your language? Do you have contact with them?
  • Yes, there is. No, we don't. ~~Xil...(talk) 19:44, 28 August 2008 (UTC)
• Who (else) supports you?
• How looks your public outreach for your edition? Do you have flyers, give lectures, trainings etc.?
  • It is well-known. Sadly, most people just copy the articles for their needs and don't give anything back (i.e. write and article). Some just vandalise pages, but there aren't a lot of such people. --SpeedKing 18:23, 28 August 2008 (UTC)
  • We haven't done much about it. There have been some articles in press about our Wikipedia ~~Xil...(talk) 19:44, 28 August 2008 (UTC)
• Do you get feedback from readers?
  • Sometimes ~~Xil...(talk) 19:44, 28 August 2008 (UTC)
• What other encyclopedias exist in your language?
  • There are many printed encyclopedias in Latvian ~~Xil...(talk) 19:44, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

Content

• Does your edition concentrates on certain topics, like your region and language, or Latin Wikipedia on Roman history and Christianity?
  • Not officially, but a lot of pages are about sports or European cities. --SpeedKing 18:23, 28 August 2008 (UTC)
  • No, people write about what they are interested in (and they may happen to be interested in certaint topics, like sports, European cities, Turkey etc.). Of course, we do write about our country, but no one concentrates on it. ~~Xil...(talk) 19:44, 28 August 2008 (UTC)
• Did your edition enjoy text donations, for example from older encyclopedias?
  • Given linguistic and other differences copying old encyclopedias dosen't seem like a good idea to me. Some have tried to get permission to copy texts from other web pages ~~Xil...(talk) 19:44, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

Language

• Is there a generally accepted norm about your language (spelling, dictionary, pronunciation)?
  • Yes. By the way, one of our administrators is a linguist. --SpeedKing 18:23, 28 August 2008 (UTC)
  • Yes, rather strict ~~Xil...(talk) 19:44, 28 August 2008 (UTC)
• How do you deal with different spellings, dialects etc. (like B.E. lift and A.E. elevator)?
  • There aren't a lot of such cases, but the most memorable (a year ago) ended with letting the writer choose the spelling. --SpeedKing 18:23, 28 August 2008 (UTC)
  • Latvian Wikipedia is written in the Standard Latvian, which is based on one dialect, so we rarely have any problems and we don't have any procedure to deal with them ~~Xil...(talk) 19:44, 28 August 2008 (UTC)