Proposals for closing projects/Closure of Dzongkha Wikipedia

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The result of the following proposal for closing a WMF project is to KEEP the project. Please, do not modify this page.

The following discussion is closed: This proposal has been around for almost three years. The consensus reached so far is leaning towards keeping the project. Since there has been enough time and enough voters, I close this as keep. —§ stay (sic)! 18:22, 25 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I feel that the Dzongkha Wikipedia should be closed.

The statistics say that there are 68 articles. Almost all of them are image-only pages created by dz:User:Jose77 who does not speak Dzongkha. There have only been 4 legitimate articles so far: ཁང་ཆེས་ (furniture), རྫོང་ཁ་ (a substub), པ་ལང་ and འབྲུག་ཙན་དན་ (national anthem of Bhutan) (created by Jose77 again). There has been no useful activity in the last 3 months.

I propose moving the image-only pages to the Dzongkha Wiktionary and keeping it open, while closing this Wiki and moving its four articles to the Incubator. -- Prince Kassad 10:06, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Addendum: Dzongkha Wiktionary has been closed. Siebrand 15:58, 18 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Give it a while. I've started to add some more content and will encourage others to do the same. Chris Fynn 09:30, 13 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Support[edit]

  1. Support --MF-Warburg(de) 15:10, 28 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  2. Support -- Dead project even without the main page. Sura 08:33, 2 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  3. Support dead project Jaranda | wat's sup 02:31, 28 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  4. Support Move to incubator until the wiki meets the criteria for new wikis. --Thogo (talk) 10:45, 30 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  5. Support Little article activity in the last few months. Move contents to incubator. Sr13 20:41, 28 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  6. Support Extemely low quality content (1-2 words and a few images per article). Minimal localisation (28% - 100% most used); we've had an active native speaker on Betawiki in the beginning of April. If there had been proper content, I'd given it the benifit of the doubt. Siebrand 15:55, 18 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
    I disagree. For your information, 487 out of the 1941 system messages (ie. 25% or one-quarter) have already been translated into Dzongkha. As mentioned by Siebrand, there is already an active native Dzongkha speaker on Betawiki, therefore the possibility of him editing on Dzongkha wikipedia in the future would not be remote. --Jose77 09:12, 3 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
    One user does not constitute a community or warrent a personal wiki. I have weighed my opinion carefully and stated above how I came to it. Siebrand 21:47, 3 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
    Tibetan Wikipedia was previously comprised of 100-180 stub articles until very recently. In fact, there are now only 2 native speakers active there. Instead of closing down the project, I propose that the Main Page of Dzongkha Wikipedia be Unprotected to enable Dzongkha speakers to edit there. --Jose77 23:36, 9 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  7. Support It seems to me that this should be at incubator for now, per Thogo. --Anonymous DissidentTalk 07:53, 9 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  8. Support Move the content to incubator until this project meets requirements for new wikis. Razorflame 07:13, 2 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  9. Support per others (and the only contributor was Jose77). Junkcops 07:57, 18 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose[edit]

  1. Oppose Please give it a few more years and I am sure that it will grow. I am a native dzongkha speaker and just got my id. I will be adding more articles soon. I am going to get some of my friends to do the same too. So, please do not close it.|unsigned]] comment was added by User: Dragonflag • contribs) .
  1. --Node ue 23:15, 24 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  2. Oppose Give it a chance. I remember the same question for SiSwati wikipedia (only 2 articles). Now it has got 77. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 87.11.16.68 (talk • contribs) .
  3. Oppose Chabi 10:42, 30 December 2007 (UTC) Give it a chance. Not all the people have acces on the Net. --Chabi 10:42, 30 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  4. OpposeKatxis 12:42, 30 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  5. OpposeNot to close but to move it to Incubator--Russkij 15:44, 7 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  6. Oppose The Bhutanese government's ban on television and the Internet was only lifted since 1999, making Bhutan one of the last countries to introduce television (& internet). According to internetworldstats.com, there are 30,000 Internet users in Bhutan as of September 2007. Here is a Dzongkha website (in unicode). We need to be a bit more patient and look long term - can we be absolutely certain that there will be no Bhutanese contributors in one or two years time? --Jose77 09:19, 18 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]
    No problem, but why can't that waiting for a community go on in the incubator wiki? The only difference is there that there are pages in other languages too. --Thogo (talk) 10:14, 18 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]
    Because Dzongkha is typed using the Tibetan script. You are making the assumption that every Bhutanese internet user has already installed a Dzongkha keyboard. Dzongkha Wikipedia has overcome that problem by having a check box (installed by User:Eukesh) which enables users to write in Dzonkha automatically without the requirement to download any Dzongkha keyboard-typing software. If dz.wiki content were moved to incubator, then most of the future Bhutanese participants would have considerable difficulty to contribute. --Jose77 07:14, 19 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  7. Oppose per above--Dima io 22:57, 30 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
    Oppose per above. --Node ue 00:50, 31 March 2008 (UTC) You may not vote twice. -- Prince Kassad 09:28, 3 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  8. Oppose Please give it a chance ~ internet use is only just developing in Bhutan and most use is still in English - Generally Bhutanese are not yet at all familiar with using Dzongkha on the WWW. Even all the Bhutanese government sites are still in English! Apart from Dzongkha Wikipedia about the only web sites currently in Dzongkha are those of the National Library of Bhutan and the Dzongkha Linux Project. Maybe some members of that project could be encouraged to translate the rest of the messages ~ and perhaps Dzongkha Language students at ILCS, Sherubtse Collegeand other institutions in Bhutan could be encouraged to contribute articles. CFynn 06:48, 9 June 2008 (UTC) (Thimphu, Bhutan)[reply]
  9. Oppose yes give it a chance. bhutanese culture has never been strong in writing as most of the written text was limited to religious 'choekey' literature. things are changing now and with the deeper penetration of computers and the web, more people are steadily gaining access to the web. give it a chance.--202.144.137.182 09:02, 9 June 2008 (UTC)Karma[reply]
  10. Oppose Here's the mission of the Wikimedia - "The mission of the Wikimedia Foundation is to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free content license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally" no matter how small a group or community. Am i correct to assume? By closing the whole point of a wiki is defeated. There are about 6000 languages in the world and as many as 3-4 die annually, basically by closing the Dzongkha Wiki, Wikepedia is basically killing a language that still has over 600,000 living population. Furthermore computer and electronic typography is still in its infancy, and by closing down this sub-site you are going to deprive even that little chance it has to grow. nonowangchuk
  11. Oppose I have been using the Internet since it was DARPANET, but only got my first Wikipedia ID *LAST* year. Meanwhile, this is my *FIRST* posting, because there was never anything that I thought was worth the time it might take me to figure out how to actually *POST* something on Wikipedia. I should additionally add that I didn't even know (until today) that there was a Dzongka Wiki, even though I am a student of Dzongka for many years now. Much of the Internet is about serendipity. I've been using it for almost 20 years and I'm still learning new things and discovering new places or -- maybe -- just getting around to having the time to actually *TRY* something that you've known about for five or ten years. The Internet is just getting going in Bhutan. Give the Bhutanese another five or ten years and I believe that enough of them will discover it to make you glad that you didn't kill it in its infancy. Finally, I would like to ask those who are in favor of killing it because few (or NO) "native Dzongka speakers" are (currently) participating: HAVE YOU CONSIDERED WRITING AN ARTICLE EXPLAINING WHAT A 'WIKI' IS, TOGETHER WITH POINTERS TO THE DZONGKA WIKI FOR ONE OF THE THIMPHU PAPERS (KUENSEL, ETC.) AND/OR SUGGESTING IT AS A STUDENT WRITING-PROJECT TO HIGH-SCHOOL OR COLLEGE TEACHERS IN BHUTAN??? I would really advocate that frustrated persons in the "SUPPORT" category (above) try this first. The Cartographer
  12. Oppose, little activity now, I'll concede, but as per above, with recent liberalisation in Bhutan, there is excellent potential for this Wiki to grow in the future. Craig Franklin 03:51, 5 July 2008 (UTC).[reply]
  13. Oppose --Ilaria 07:13, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  14. Oppose, More and more Bhutanese people will use the Internet in the near future, and Dzongkha Wikipedia would grow larger and larger. --RekishiEJ 09:35, 24 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  15. Oppose per the arguments above. And, while incubator may be nice for getting new Wikipedia projects going, it is a sheer waste of time and manpower to move an existing wiki there, and move it back again later. Put that effort into getting contributors awareness! --Purodha Blissenbach 17:57, 4 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  16. Oppose; Bhutan introduced the Internet very recently, and Wikipedia is far more well-known than the incubator. It's a waste to move it to the incubator and back, and we can't really expect significant activity there now, given the recent liberalisation in Bhutan. Wait a couple years. Bart133 15:10, 14 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  17. Oppose the Dzongkha language is one of the foremost cultural languages in Asia and I completely concur with the aforementioned arguments. Moreover, nobody questions the independence of the language unlike the debatable Macedonian/Bulgarian or Siberian/Russian. Bogorm 20:19, 18 September 2008 (UTC)m bv bnvb[reply]
  18. Oppose. Holder 08:52, 12 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  19. Oppose.English Wikipedia also need to close in 100 BC.—藏骨集团 04:25, 26 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  20. Oppose — Allow it. The wiki has actually grown quite a bit since the criticism. Ukabia 12:39, 7 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  21. Oppose Give it time. A Stop at Willoughby 19:08, 7 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  22. Oppose per A Stop at Willoughby. --虞海 (Yú Hǎi) 06:25, 12 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  23. Oppose per others.--Tingo Chu 11:56, 22 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  24. Oppose --Pineapple fez 22:29, 6 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

General comments[edit]

Please give it a few more years and I am sure that it will grow. I am a native dzongkha speaker and just got my id. I will be adding more articles soon. I am going to get some of my friends to do the same too. So, please do not close it.


Moving to the incubator is not shutting down the project at all. All content is saved and everyone is invited to add more content over there. But the main task would be to translate the Mediawiki stuff. --Thogo (talk) 11:24, 3 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed, it would only serve to foster growth. --Anonymous DissidentTalk 09:04, 9 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]


I wonder if normal Bhutanese users, most unfamiliar with Wikipedia would ever find it on Incubator? Or would they automatically get redirected there? To get the Mediawiki stuff translated into Dzongkha someone should probably contact members of the Dzongkha Linux Project at the Department of Information Technology since they have a whole team of translators used to doing localization.

CFynn 11:52, 9 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

As noted above, for those of us not so familiar with using www etc, how would we find the 'incubator'? maybe if I understood this, we could consider whether the average bhutanese user would be able to find it?

Do not close, let the facility survive 125.24.143.227 07:59, 10 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

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