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Proposals for closing projects/Closure of Bosnian Wikibooks, Wikinews, Wikiquote and Wikisource

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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 is currently open for discussion by the community.

Proposal

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In continuation of this request and following the local community's decision to broaden the projects' domain to the entire Sprachraum of the macrolanguage, I'm initiating this project closure proposal based on subsequent consultations with MF-Warburg, a member of the Wikimedia Foundation Language Committee. This proposal covers the Bosnian Wikibooks, Wikinews, Wikiquote, and Wikisource.

During the local discussion, it was noted that the aforementioned projects do not have local administrators to maintain them, nor an active editorial base, whatsoever. The Bosnian Wikibooks contain only 32 pages in total, with no growth over the past 10 years after its initial project closure proposal. The Bosnian Wikinews was soft-closed in August 2020, following its first and second project closure proposals. Although the Bosnian Wikiquote and Wikisource are significantly larger in size, all revival attempts so far have failed, unfortunately, and the community is apparently leaning towards incubation.

The proposed solution would involve moving these projects to the Incubator under the sh macrolanguage code. This approach would enable the projects to attract editors from the entire language area, aligning with the practices of other polycentric language projects. Subsequently, each project should be viewed on a case-by-case basis regarding the incubation period, as MF-Warburg pointed out.

This Type 2 closure request is submitted with the intention of formalizing the local community's decision. All colleagues are welcome to provide their feedback and comments.

Thank you in advance, Aca (talk) 19:56, 14 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion

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  • Comment The following listing covers all of the previous and current proposals for closing B. wikiprojects:
  1. Proposals for closing projects/Closure of Bosnian Wikinews (2010, closed as rejected)
  2. Proposals for closing projects/Closure of Bosnian Wikinews - 2nd proposal (2011, closed as rejected)
  3. Proposals for closing projects/Closure of Bosnian Wikibooks (2015, closed as rejected)
  4. Bosnian Wikinews – No. 3 (2020, closed as approved/aka a soft-closure):
    1. Talk:Language committee/2020#What to do with Bosnian Wikinews?
    2. Steward requests/Miscellaneous/2020-08#Bosnian Wikinews inactive
  5. Proposals for closing projects/Closure of Bosnian Wiktionary (2025, still open)
  • --نوفاك اتشمان (talk) 16:31, 21 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    Thank you for the links! They are mostly included above. :) – Aca (talk) 19:41, 21 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    Comment Hm, perhaps, dunno. --نوفاك اتشمان (talk) 17:12, 17 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • + Support Conditional support: If and only if the local B. Wikimedia community has explicitly expressed such a desire, although I'd like too see more of the *native* B. editors confirm their previous local decisions and/or make their final ones here on Meta-Wiki. --نوفاك اتشمان (talk) 16:49, 21 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    + Comment Of course, now I'd Strong support that for all of the B. Wikimedia projects. --نوفاك اتشمان (talk) 15:14, 25 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support. – Svārtava (tɕ) 14:47, 22 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose --GoodBosnian (talk) 15:23, 22 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose --Agusbou2015 (talk) 15:55, 23 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    @Agusbou2015 But why? Liuxinyu970226 (talk) 22:55, 31 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Strong support. The change combines the user bases of two sets of projects that, linguistically, are the same language, improving the quality and viability of the projects and is in line with movement values. In addition, the change has critical support in both communities. / Deni (talk) 17:52, 24 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Strong support. These projects have seen little to no activity for years and lack the community needed for meaningful development. Keeping them open only fragments efforts and misrepresents the state of the Wikimedia movement. Given the linguistic closeness of ex-Yugoslav communities, similar underused projects across the region should be considered for unification. One well-maintained version per project type (e.g. a shared Wikibooks or Wikiquote) could foster collaboration, improve quality, and ensure sustainability.  ✪ Z1KA  20:13, 27 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    Could be, but that project's name should not exclude name "Bosnian", while including "Serbian" and "Croatian"; Should be either BCS or Shtokavian. GoodBosnian (talk) 20:23, 28 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    That's actually a good point. In local contexts, we are free to use more inclusive terms like "(standard) Shtokavian". That way, no one will feel left out, and we will be able to spread free knowledge for the entire diasystem, or macrolanguage, or whatever you call it. :) – Aca (talk) 07:21, 29 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    Fair enough, but my point was about the project's actual name, not just how we refer to it locally. If "Serbian" and "Croatian" are explicitly mentioned, then "Bosnian" should be too—or we go with something neutral like BCS or Shtokavian across the board.
    Otherwise, it feels like one standard is being left out, and that goes against the idea of equal footing in a shared diasystem. GoodBosnian (talk) 22:10, 29 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    Well, the project name in English is usually aligned with relevant en.WP article about the language. Currently, that article is called Serbo-Croatian in accordance with the COMMONNAME rule. I know It's not inclusive enough, but neither is the title LGBTQ. The most inclusive term here would be "Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian" (BCMS), with two remaining standards included. You should also note that the term Serbo-Croatian might encompass all language varieties within these boundaries (with Serbia in the east and Croatia in the west), therefore including Bosnian and Montenegrin in that very sense. (Brozović, 1988). In any case, you are free to request the move on English Wikipedia, and if consensus for emerges, I will be first to change the project name(s) in English accordingly. :) – Aca (talk) 09:16, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support, not really strong(ly) support, just per Croatian Wikipedia Disinformation Assessment-2021 , that assessment suggests to merge Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian into one Serbo-Croatian projects. --Liuxinyu970226 (talk) 08:33, 31 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    Just wonder, should this also be extended to Bosnian Wikipedia or not? Liuxinyu970226 (talk) 08:34, 31 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    No? The wiki is still active there and has 3 active admins. – Phương Linh (T · C · CA · L · B) 08:36, 31 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    @Hide on Rosé But I would rather consider also submitting such PCPs for Croatian Wiktionary, Croatian Wikibooks, Croatian Wikiquote and Croatian Wikisource. Liuxinyu970226 (talk) 22:50, 31 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    @Liuxinyu970226: Thank you for your input! As noted above, this proposal covers the Bosnian Wikibooks, Wikinews, Wikiquote, and Wikisource. Bosnian Wikipedia is not covered, as it has an active editing community, and there's no local consensus for the merger. As for the Croatian sister projects, I'd suggest starting а local discussion at Croatian Wikipedia after this PCP. After that, we will see if there's a local consensus for such a motion. – Aca (talk) 11:22, 1 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Strong support. According to inactivity--Fenikals (talk) 12:03, 3 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment Hello, folks. An admin on BS Wiki speaking. Regarding BS Wikinews and BS Wikibooks, there is no editorial base nor interest for many years now and, as sad as it is, anything other than closing these two projects doesn't seem rational. But the other two projects should not be closed (at least not yet). Due to complex historical, political, and social circumstances, Bosnian language has gone (and is still going) through difficulties (many people from neighbouring countries, including some from their academic communities, don't recognize it as a separate standard language because of their political bias and/or chauvinism); in 1907, Austria-Hungary banned the use of name "Bosnian language", imposing the name "Serbo-Croatian" instead; Kingdom of Yugoslavia and SFR Yugoslavia continued with that ban, so many Bosnian writers had to publish their works in Serbo-Croatian until 1993, when the name "Bosnian language" has been officially reinstated; so, as a result, today there are no many free publications in Bosnian available for transferring them to Wikisource; but, the time is passing and it will bring more works to the public domain (in Bosnia and Herzegovina the waiting time is 75 years since the authors' death). As for Wikiquotes, it would be a shame to annul the work that has been already done; yes, the project is in stagnation, but there are quite more entries than on Wikisource. And for long as I can remember (since 2011), there is a different quote on BS Wikipedia's Main Page every day (they are taken from BS Wikiquotes' entries). Sorry for the long comment, but in cases like this one, the historical background is very important in order to see the whole picture and to make the right decision. Thank you for the patience and understanding. – KWiki (talk) 15:20, 22 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    Thank you for this context! Even though I started this discussion by listing projects en masse, I actually do agree that we can consider individual closures, given the background, and if that is the solution preferred by the local community. – Aca (talk) 16:28, 22 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Strong support, the forking of bosnian-croatian-montenegrin-serbian wikis was a mistake and they all should be merged back. ltbdl (talk) 13:04, 5 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    Maybe it was from out-of-Balkans point of view. History has complicated everything. If it could be excluded (as a field) from Wikipedia, then merging could come into consideration, but it is impossible. Every side has its perspective about certain events. And there are also four standard languages and orthographies; Croatian differs the most. How to agree upon one of them? It is hard for people who don't live here to fully understand the situation. KWiki (talk) 20:35, 5 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    And there are also four standard languages and orthographies; Croatian differs the most. How to agree upon one of them?
    in english wikipedia we have en:WP:ENGVAR. ltbdl (talk) 07:50, 7 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    There is also a lexical difference: tisuća : hiljada ("thousand"), stoljeće : v(ij)ek ("century"), povijest : (h)istorija ("history"), leća : sočivo ("lense"), riža : pirinač ("rice"), the names of the months etc. (it doesn't affect the understanding /or it does, but minimally/, but people who hold on to the standard Croatian would never say / write the other words and vice versa. The case of English is different because it is not a political issue like it is here. KWiki (talk) 14:17, 7 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    it doesn't affect the understanding /or it does, but minimally/
    you're writing my points for me. ltbdl (talk) 13:08, 8 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    But you are missing the politics. It's among major political issues. KWiki (talk) 16:47, 8 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    you hate each other so much you can't write articles together with the same language?? ltbdl (talk) 16:45, 9 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    As I said: the history events are problematic (especially WW II and Yugoslav Wars), other fields should be more or less OK. And it's the almost same language, that is, four standard languages (political, cultural and national issue). KWiki (talk) 22:46, 11 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    the history events are problematic (especially WW II and Yugoslav Wars)
    yeah, that's what led to the 2021 hr.wiki incident. merging would encourage discussion and a neutral point of view. ltbdl (talk) 05:18, 13 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    @Ltbdl what 2021 hr.wiki incident? HR Wikipedia was abducted by right wing nationalists decade before, the only difference is that now they do not have full control (loss of 3 key admin privileged account) but are still the majority of contributors. Zblace (talk) 07:33, 28 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    @Zblace: I don't think that right wing nationalists are still "the majority of contributors" on hrwiki. That seems like a broad generalization. However, thank you on your earlier insight. – Aca (talk) 23:04, 28 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support per nominator. //shb (t • c) 00:13, 23 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
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