Talk:Language committee/2015

From Meta, a Wikimedia project coordination wiki

Awadhi Wikipedia

Hello.I would like to request Langcom to approve Awadhi Language for creating a Wikipedia.The activity on Awadhi Test Wiki is flourishing which can be seen from the analysis and here.I would be very grateful if you verify this language.I hope to listen soon from Langcom about updates on Awadhi Wikipedia--Anuraag Pandey (talk) 13:07, 4 January 2015 (UTC)

Request Luri, Konkani and Awadhi be verified for eligibility

I really think the following three languages (Northern Luri, Goan Konkani and Awadhi) should be reviewed for eligibility. These projects have each remained under discussion for quite some time now, and during that time they have become quite active, developing a fairly decent amount of articles and community N. Luri, Goan Konkani and Awadhi. each of these languages has a large community of speakers Northern Luri numbers 1.7 million speakers, Goan Konkani numbers 3.6 million and Awadhi numbers 3.0 million. I feel these projects should all be given a thorough review for eligibility and not be left perpetually in limbo, speakers of these languages might feel more willing to contribute even more than they already have if they have the security of knowing that there project stands a chance to one day be published. Abrahamic Faiths (talk) 23:04, 9 January 2015 (UTC)

Wikivoyage Arabic

Would you please approve the Requests for new languages/Wikivoyage Arabic

Also we have some active users see and have up 80 users Support this project --Florence (talk) 17:57, 26 December 2014 (UTC)
What do we need to get the final approval for this project--Emara (talk) 13:22, 7 January 2015 (UTC)
I think the Arabic Wikivoyage should be created because it has a large number of vistors.--عثمان خان شاہ (talk) 20:48, 15 January 2015 (UTC)

Urdu Wikivoyage

I think the Urdu Wikivoyage at Requests for new languages/Wikivoyage Urdu should be reviewed for eligibility..--عثمان خان شاہ (talk) 20:54, 15 January 2015 (UTC)

Requests for new languages inconsistencies

Perhaps I'm not understanding certain aspects of this process, but I've found the following inconsistencies in the Requests for new languages page (the "summary" page) and its subpages. (Apologies for the huge post.)

Extended content
  1. Open requests marked "Verified as eligible" on the summary page but only marked "submitted" (as opposed to "verification") on the individual request subpages:
  2. Open requests marked as being in "Discussion" on the summary page but "verified as eligible" on individual request subpages:
  3. Open request marked as being in "Discussion" on the summary page but "rejected" as "final decision" on individual request subpage:
  4. Open requests marked as "on hold" on summary page but no indication of why (in template at top, at least) on individual request subpages:
  5. Open requests with (possibly) inconsistent capitalization in subpage titles (similar requests have been redirected to capitalized versions):
  6. Open request with no template on request subpage:
  7. Wikivoyage "fast-tracked" languages marked as "Approved" on summary page but not marked as "verified as eligible" (merely "submitted") on the individual subpages:
  8. Closed requests marked "Created" on summary page but with no link to separate wiki on subpage (in template at top of page, anyway):
  9. Closed requests marked "Rejected" on summary page but marked "submitted" (as opposed to "final decision") on individual request subpages:
  10. Closed request that was closed awkwardly (judged an April Fool's joke, but the terse closing comment left that unclear) and has seen problematic editing [1] (including a move to a new title) by (mostly) IP editors since then:
  11. Request subpages in Category:Open requests for new languages (all at the "submitted" level and many, but not all, having a relatively trivial edit history) that do not appear on the main summary page (note bad page titles for some of these):
  12. Request subpages in Category:Failed requests for new languages that do not appear on the main summary page:
  13. Request subpages in Category:Failed requests for new languages that would seem to fit better in Category:Old requests for new languages:
  14. Request subpages in Category:Requests for new languages verified as eligible (and marked "verifed as eligible" on the subpages) that do not appear on the main summary page:
  15. Request subpage in Category:Approved requests for new languages not appearing on the main summary page that may not have been closed properly ("closed" by a now-blocked user):
  16. Request subpages in Category:Approved requests for new languages not appearing on the main summary page that do not have an indication that they were "approved before the implementation of the standardised Language proposal policy" (as do the rest of the similar pages in that category):
  17. Request subpages listed in the nonexistent Category:Invalid language request template usage because of some kind of template usage error:
  18. Request subpages not appearing on the summary page or any subcategory of Category:Requests for new languages (or Category:Invalid language request template usage, for that matter), usually because they're incomplete and/or malformed requests:
  19. Non-subpages that appear to be badly named and/or malformed requests for new languages:

Note that if any subpage appears in multiple categories mentioned above (but not on the summary page), it will only appear in one of the above lists (usually the earliest one).

Having now gone through every subpage I could find, I should point out that I've already fixed some minor errors I found here and there, but for the stuff listed above I either didn't know what to do about them or I figured they'd be better dealt with by an admin. - dcljr (talk) 08:22, 5 January 2015 (UTC)

Wow, these are quite a lot. I will start with some comments:
Those in no. 1-4 and 9 have the status that is indicated on the request page. The "summary page" should be updated according to them (Exception is the 1st one listed for no. 9: It was in reality rejected, but the template parameter on the request page was vandalized/changed by an IP -- now reverted).
Those in no. 8 do exist; if it's desired, the links to the subdomains can easily be added (though they are also in the request template, as for all requests). --MF-W 20:34, 5 January 2015 (UTC)
And Requests for new languages/Wikipedia Montenegrin 5, no summary, broken template, and per the 4 former discussions it can be 5th rejected (Forgive my all-caps oppose comment). --Liuxinyu970226 (talk) 10:21, 8 January 2015 (UTC)
TL;DR, Requests for new languages/Wikivoyage Zazaki has two header templates, a "verification" one and a "submitted" one. --Liuxinyu970226 (talk) 11:20, 8 January 2015 (UTC)
Some non-standard/rude titles are fixed by me... --Liuxinyu970226 (talk) 22:59, 8 January 2015 (UTC)
@MF-Warburg: You said, "Those in no. 1-4 and 9 have the status that is indicated on the request page." Unfortunately, that does not appear to be true in every case: When I started to go through syncing the summary page with the subpages, I found that the 2nd and 3rd subpages in my list (under #1 above), Wikinews Basque and Wikinews Sicilian, were given the status "verification" by an admin ([2], [3]) and were changed to "submitted" status years later by an IP editor ([4] [5]). Looks to me like the subpages (request pages) are wrong in those 2 cases, and thus will likely be wrong in other cases, as well. (BTW, three other similar edits by that IP editor at the same time did not involve a change in subpage status, but should probably be checked by an admin, anyway.) I have started to sync the information on the summary page with the subpages that appear to be correct, crossing out the entries in the above lists as I go. When I come across a subpage that appears to be incorrect (as with the Basque and Sicilian Wikinews requests), I will mark them with "??" and not change anything (yet). Someone else can change the subpages if they feel it is appropriate, but I'm going to stick with fixing the summary page in "obvious" cases for now. - dcljr (talk) 19:44, 20 January 2015 (UTC)
I see, I didn't think about the possibility that the request pages could also have been changed wrongly, when actually no decision to change a request's status was made. In most cases, if a "submitted->verified" or "open->eligible" change wasn't made by a Langcom member, it is wrong. I checked the edits of the IP you mentioned and corrected them; that was in fact a past abuser. Thanks for your cleaning up in this area. --MF-W 00:12, 26 January 2015 (UTC)

Northern Pashto Wikipedia

Hi, Need your help. The exist Pashto edition of Wikipedia is in Southern Pashto Which is mostly spoken in Central and Southern Afghanistan, this dialect is called Central or Western dialect of Pashto. But unfortunately the Pakistani Pashtuns (who are more in population than Afghan Pashtun) do not understand the Afghani Pashto Dialect, The central Afghanistani Pashto is completely different from Pashto Spoken In Pakistan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa).So I want to request for Northern Pashto,Is it possible to create Wikipedia edition for Northern Pashto ? As Wikimedia already created two Arabic editions of Wikipedia one in Egyptian Arabic and second in Standard Arabic.--UsmanKhanShah (talk) 21:24, 2 February 2015 (UTC)

Neapolitan Wikisource

Hi, in 2011 we opened a request for a Neapolitan Wikisource and I think that this project has grown enough to be approved.

We are a small community, but we are trying to keep a good activity every month to make this project run good. The Neapolitan language count more than 11 million speakers around the world, has a rich and long literary story and Wikisource would be a good opportunity to share this beautiful heritage.

It would be very appreciated if you could reply quickly to this request.

Thank you for reading and have a nice day.

--Chelin (talk) 17:50, 4 February 2015 (UTC)

Deletion of Moldovan Wikipedia consensus

there appears to be a consensus that Moldovan Wikipedia should be deleted that has approx. 81% supporting deletion of the Moldovan Wikipedia at Proposals for closing projects/Deletion of Moldovan Wikipedia 2. 72.65.238.239 21:31, 4 February 2015 (UTC)

I'm not on the Language Committee, but I'd like to point out that closure discussions are not votes, so the 81% figure doesn't mean as much as you might think. There may indeed be a consensus, but it's not because one side got more votes. - dcljr (talk) 02:57, 5 February 2015 (UTC)

LangCom members, your feedback is needed

Dear member of the Language Committee (@Amire80, Antony D. Green, Bèrto 'd Sèra, Maor X, GerardM, Jon Harald Søby, and Karen:, @Arria Belli, MF-Warburg, Evertype, Millosh, Baba Tabita, SPQRobin, and Santhosh.thottingal:, @Shanel and ZaDiak:),

can you please give some kind of feedback to the many request for updates that lie unanswered on this page?

Thank you. Candalua (talk) 11:16, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

Awadhi Wikipedia

I request the language committee to consider the Eligibility of Awadhi Wikipedia.--Anuraag Pandey (Leave a message) 10:24, 5 April 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia Tunisian

Dear Sir, Since 2011, we are doing some works in order to define a Wikipedia in Tunisian. So, what are the conditions so that this wikipedia could be created in the near Future? what should we do?. Yours Sincerely, --Csisc (talk) 10:36, 4 April 2015 (UTC)

There should be continuous activity in the Incubator test-project by at least 3 contributors for at least several months. --MF-W 23:57, 12 April 2015 (UTC)

Wikiversity Croatia

We are requesting to have Wikiversity for university articles in croatian language. --— The preceding unsigned comment was added by 78.1.70.11 (talk) 8 April 2015, 13:52 (UTC)

You can contribute on BetaWikiversity. There is currently only a main page for Croation: betawikiversity:Glavna_stranica. --MF-W 23:52, 12 April 2015 (UTC)

Khowar Wikipedia

On behalf of the Khowar language speakers from Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Xinjiang(China) I, the undersigned Test Wiki Admin and translator humbly request the language committee to consider the eligibility, approval and creation of Khowar Wikipedia.--Rehmat Aziz Chitrali 13:19, 12 April 2015 (UTC)

The activity on Incubator is good, but there are at the moment 224 untranslated messages from the most-used group which need to be translated first. --MF-W 23:51, 12 April 2015 (UTC)
Mr.MF-W and all respectable members of Language Committee I am pleased to inform you that I have completed the translations today as desired by your goodself, Please normalise and create the khw.wikipedia.org as soon as possible, with profound regards -- Rehmat Aziz Chitrali 07:03, 14 April 2015 (UTC)

luri lrc wikipedia

hello
luri lrc was active in 2 last years.this wiki has 5 or six active useres but this wiki was'nt make so far?. so thanks.lrc lori (talk) 17:28, 13 April 2015 (UTC)

Pashto Wikiquote

I request the language committee to consider the Eligibility of Pashto Wikiquote--UsmanKhann (talk) 05:48, 15 April 2015 (UTC)

inactive members of the committee

Some of the members of the committee haven't been active even in their home wiki lately (=at least one year, sometimes even more). Shouldn't we have a policy on the subject? It looks also a little bit eurocentric, considering missing languages are in other area of the world nowadays maybe proposing new candidates from Asia, Africa or South America to replace inative ones would be a good strategy on the long term.--Alexmar983 (talk) 13:18, 20 April 2015 (UTC)

As a non-member of the committee, I disagree any policies are needed. You cannot force voluntary activity by policies, and especially not activity by users of certain regions of the world. Vogone (talk) 13:44, 20 April 2015 (UTC)
I disagree as well, because this has nothing to do with what I said.--Alexmar983 (talk) 14:40, 20 April 2015 (UTC)
"Some of the members of the committee haven't been active even in their home wiki lately (=at least one year, sometimes even more). Shouldn't we have a policy on the subject?"
In my opinion, that line implies you would like to force LangCom members to be active on their homewikis by policy.
"It looks also a little bit eurocentric, considering missing languages are in other area of the world nowadays maybe proposing new candidates from Asia, Africa or South America to replace inative ones would be a good strategy on the long term."
Proposing LangCom members won't help much either, because since this is a volunteer job, you will need to be interested in this yourself. If there are no interested applicants from these regions of the world, there is nothing one could do about this, you cannot force someone from there to join LangCom either. Vogone (talk) 15:43, 20 April 2015 (UTC)
but i have never used the verb "forcing". to me a policy means to write that if you haven't been active for 12 months, there is no point in keeping a position. Noone is "forcing" you. If you don't work, how can you be present? This principle is applied in many area, it is just good sense. And the second sentence has nothing to do with the policy itself, it is a suggestion to look for candidates form other area. You don't want to do it? Don't do it. The people you contact are not interested, fine. But I really cannot imagine how can you possibly write in a policy something like that. Take it easy, chap :D--Alexmar983 (talk) 16:47, 20 April 2015 (UTC)
Well, a policy should usually be enforced, even if you didn't explicitly mention the word "force". ;-) Nevertheless, the issue I see with the homewiki approach is that most of LangCom work happens off-wiki, i.e. on-wiki activity cannot really be taken as a measurement, in my opinion. Regards, Vogone (talk) 17:15, 20 April 2015 (UTC)
enforcing a policy does not mean forcing someone, e.g. to edit just to keep a flag. It is still his/her choice to do that. In any case, I really have the feeling that some of these people are simply inactive. And I really don't get how you can produce a structured opinion if you are not "inside" the workflow yourself, at least a little bit. One or two years on wiki are a "geological age", as I often say. For example: how are you supposed to "maximize the co-operation level among different language communities" if you don't know anymore how the local wiki you were related is corrently working (and I doubt you know a lot about the ones you have never been active on).
in general, it is not fully clear how the selection of member is working, is there a place where it is openly discussed? It does not sound great (but I am not irritated, I just find it "funny") to read "if you are interested in becoming a member [...] email to langcom at lists.wikimedia.org or contact any member in private. " after paragraph named "transparency".--Alexmar983 (talk) 17:39, 20 April 2015 (UTC)

Võro Wikipedia ISO code

Dear representatives of Language Committee!

I am writing to you on behalf of Wikimedia Eesti following a request from Võro Wikipedia volunteers, which is one of the projects supported by the Estonian chapter. I am writing to this discussion page, as I do not know how to deal with this specific request.

The community of Võro Vikipeediä (especially one of their remarkable activists Võrok) requests a change to their wiki page address from fiu-vro.wikipedia.org to vro.wikipedia.org. Namely, during the creation of the Võro language Wikipedia page in year 2005 it did not have an ISO code and it was decided to give it an awkward combination of fiu (finno-ugric other) and vro (for võro), resulting in fiu-vro. In 2008, however, a request was made to give võro language a 3 letter language ISO code (ISO 639-3) and in January 2009 the change became effective. Since then võro language has an ISO code vro (entry on SIL international page).

Maybe on the basis of this now available ISO code a change from fiu-vro to vro can be made? Please, let me know how to proceed with the issue!

Thank you for your time and kind attention! --Kaarel Vaidla (WM EE) (talk) 08:40, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

There is already bug T31186 which requests this. However, renaming wikis is currently not possible, see the tracking bug linked from there. --MF-W 12:42, 20 April 2015 (UTC)
Dear representatives of Language Committee, the bug on change fiu-vro > vro exists already from 2011. As I understood from the last link above ([[6]] Reedy (and others) had attempted to solve the problem and had found Wed, May 13, 6:55 PM: TL;DR for this is: Renaming wikis is hard. Does it mean that code change xxx-xxx > xxx for fiu-vro, bat-smg, map-bms, roa-rup etc. will not be done at least in next say five years? Living and operating with an awkward unofficial code is not a big problem for Võro Wikipedia, just I am curious when this a bit problematic and unsystematic situation will be changed.--Võrok (talk) 08:55, 22 May 2015 (UTC)
It is really impossible to say. The last activity on the bug T21986, which is about making wiki renaming possible, last had activity one week ago. If I need to make a guess, I would say that it will be possible before five years are over, however. --MF-W 10:24, 22 May 2015 (UTC)
Thank you for explanation. As I see there is good will and only technical issues must be solved. Best wishes,--Võrok (talk) 11:11, 22 May 2015 (UTC)

Balochi wiki - Incubator

Dear members of the Language Committee (@Amire80, Antony D. Green, Bèrto 'd Sèra, Maor X, GerardM, and Jon Harald Søby:, @Arria Belli, MF-Warburg, Evertype, Millosh, Baba Tabita, SPQRobin, and Santhosh.thottingal:, @Shanel and ZaDiak:), would you kindly do favourable as early as possible for Balochi wikies - Request for merge project and to bring a new site. Ahmed Nisar (talk) 11:53, 22 May 2015 (UTC)

Discussions about moving pages on Incubator do not need to be brought to Langcom's attention. --MF-W 11:56, 22 May 2015 (UTC)

Any chance of simple French Wikipedia being approved?

I need to establish a test wiki for the Requests for new languages/Wikipedia French Simple 3 proposal, but there is no separate ISO code available: it would have to piggyback off of the existing FR ISO code so it would be "simple-fr" or something to that effect.

I would like to confirm if the Simple French language (French is a major world language and has a standardized simple form) has a chance of getting its own Wikipedia. If so I would like to have guidance on how a test wiki may be created.

Thank you, WhisperToMe (talk) 19:21, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

I support this project. Thank you in advance to those who will answer us. Embu wiki 21:43, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Does we need a subdomain first, then we translate the interface of MediaWiki, or other ways around?

Hello, language committee.

As a chapter, we are incubating some indigenous language in Taiwan with Center For Aboriginal Studies to make 5 to 15 indigenous languages in the incubator. We are reviewing the process of requesting a subdomain. However we are not sure how to translate the MediaWiki interface, should we out reach to a translatewiki admin first? Or should we request a subdomain first? Thank you for explanation. --Liang(WMTW) (talk) 11:52, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

The translation of the interface is a requirement for a language to get an own subdomain. You can simply register on translatewiki: and follow the instructions there. If your language is not yet enabled for translation there, you can request it at translatewiki:Support. --MF-W 15:31, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

Request to include Latin script Konkani in the gom Wikipedia

Hello Language Committee, I feel that the Konkani Wikipedia should include Latin script Konkani as well, because Latin script Konkani meets all the requirements for meriting a Wikipedia (active community and localisation). Please could you see Requests_for_new_languages/Wikipedia_Goan_Konkani#Request_to_the_community_and_to_LangCom_to_include_the_Latin_script_articles? Sincerely, The Discoverer (talk) 07:04, 24 June 2015 (UTC)


Dargin Wikipedia

Hi Dear the language Committee. Please tell me how to apply for creating a new version of Wikipedia. Please help leave a message on my page who knows how to apply. --Dargin people (talk) 10:51, 30 June 2015 (UTC) Привет Уважаемый языковой комитет. Пожалуйста подскажите как подать заявку на создане новой версии Википедии. Пожалуйста помогите оставьте сообщение на моей странице кто знает как подать заявку.

Wikinews Thai Project

I want to you open project wikinews thai cause I like news I want write article so Please open project I promise I will write article everytime.(Dear Thai people) Parintar (talk) 10:54, 11 July 2015 (UTC)

Cantonese Wiktionary

Now I have got a question. The Cantonese Wiktionary have created for five years ago and also have got more than 700 topics. And Requests for new languages have verified, many of the users are support to establish the Cantonese Wiktionary and without an oppose. And also the code have marked for "yue". I want to know how the rate of progress on 2015.--WKDx417 (talk) 03:16, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

South Azerbaijani Wikipedia

Hi. There are some latest news related to South Azerbaijani Wikipedia. First, let me give you a short brief about Azerbaijani language: More than 25 million Azerbaijanis live in Iran, they don't have literary language, because they are not allowed to learn Azerbaijani in schools. They use Arabic script to write in Azerbaijani and most of them cannot understand Latin letters which are in use in Azerbaijan Republic. More than 9 million Azerbaijanis live in Azerbaijan Republic and as I mentioned above, they write in Latin alphabet and except some scholars, teachers and enthusiasts no one understands Arabic script which is in use in South Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan was divided into two parts in 1813. South part stood in Iran and the North part joined Russia. So in the last 200 years Azerbaijani language developed in two different ways. In the South there are many words from Persian and Turkish and in the North we have also many words from Persian, Arabian, Turkish, Russian and different European languages. In everyday conversations we can understand each other with some difficulties, but when we start to talk on scientific topics, biology, physics, geography etc it's very hard to understand terms. That's why we need two different wikis, we even cannot use mirroring to read. We understand that it will be a waste of time.
Most of the users from Azerbaijan Republic were confused by Arabic script in Azerbaijani Wikipedia. We had discussions on this problem since az-wiki started. Newcomers were asking old users to delete articles in Arabic script and don't allow users to create new articles in this script. But at that times we had strong believe that South Azerbaijani Wikipedia is too weak to grow independently, that's why many of our users voted against creation of azb-wiki years ago.
But we alarmed when article count reached 100.000 in az-wiki. More than 10.000 of them were articles in Arabic script (most of them were stubs). We saw that it's too hard for this 2 scripts to "live together". And we started systematic deletion of all articles written in Arabic script in az-wiki. This process came to an end few days ago. So now in az-wiki we don't have articles in Arabic script. We asked all our South Azerbaijani users to work in Incubator to help azb-wiki to become an independent project.--Wertuose (talk) 20:17, 27 April 2015 (UTC)
@Wertuose: Did AZWiki consider having a system which changes Latin script to Arabic script? This is what the Kazakh Wikipedia does WhisperToMe (talk) 00:20, 25 July 2015 (UTC)

Dear Langcom members! 2 months past from my appeal, but no reaction demonstrated. I discussed this problem with Amire80 in London last year and with Maor X in Berlin a month ago. If you need any information or you can advice something please let me know.--Wertuose (talk) 06:13, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

Dear Wertuose. Thanks for your appeal. Please be assured that there has been intensive discussion among LangCom members after your first message above of 27 April. Two months is actually not a long time when it comes to politically tricky and emotionally charged topics. It is customary for LangCom to make decisions unanimously as this will ensure that the consensus reached (when it has been reached) stands a chance of being acceptable to most Wikimedia and local wp members as well. We're still in process of reaching a consensus on this issue - and no, it is not due to a lack of information. Sorry. Best wishes, --Baba Tabita (talk) 07:12, 3 July 2015 (UTC)

Request to all members of language committee

Wikipedia Khowar

I would like to request the Language Committee to consider approval of Khowar Wikipedia as early as possible as all criteria are met. I want to know when khowar wikipedia will be normal like other Pakistani Wikipedias?--Zaheeruddin25 (talk) 05:56, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

  • I support the request. It is active since October 2014 and all most used core messages have been translated. I hope that Committee will contact an expert to verify the project as soon as possible. --Ghiutun 19:35, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

Lower Silesian Wikipedia

Hi! I translate all required MediaWiki interface translations, please check it on Language committee/Status/wp/sli. It's last requirement for approval.

That page is quite outdated. Unfortunately, the test-project on Incubator isn't really active anymore (1 edit so far in this month, before that 8 in June, 6 in May). --MF-W 18:51, 17 August 2015 (UTC)
As for today 236 most used core messages are still untranslated into Silesian German, so inactivity unfortunately is not the only problem. --Ghiutun 19:40, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

Lithuanian Wikiversity

I would like to ask to consider Lithuanian Wikiversity approval. I think all criteria are met, if not please let me know. --FuksuFuksas (talk) 10:02, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

Is Wikiversity project still active/maintained? It would be great to get any response from the Language committee. --FuksuFuksas (talk) 05:24, 15 September 2015 (UTC)

The future of Language Variant support

Hello. User:Nemo_bis suggested that the technical discussions about the future of editing languages with variants were in the scope of the language committee charter. As you may know, there is currently no way for Visual Editor to support editing on wikis which use LanguageConverter. Some local wikis have decided to turn off LanguageConverter in order to allow their communities to use VisualEditor, making choice "between the devil and the deep blue sea" as we say, between losing editors or readers.

There have been a number of proposals for technical ways forward. For example, a presentation was given at the 2015 MediaWiki Developers Summit on The Future of LanguageConverter, and there is an open RFC on Language Converter improvements. There is a proposal for the 2016 MediaWiki Developers Summit on the same topic.

There are two main proposals. One involves attempting to allow Visual Editor to edit text in the user's preferred variant. One component of this would be changes to LanguageConverter to create structured "Glossaries" (as described in the RFC). Another piece would be leaning on Parsoid/Visual Editor's "selective serialization" to ensure that untouched text remained in its original variant, even if you were editing content automatically converted (by LC) to your own variant. The ultimate editing process would still be error-prone, as users would have to be fluent in both variants to ensure they did not accidentally create dirty diffs or errors when editing. The other proposal involves improving the ContentTranslation tool and interwiki synchronization so that it would be possible to fully separate the content in the different variants and use ContentTranslation to semi-automatically convert edits from one variant to another. The existing LanguageConverter code would migrate to ContentTranslation, to allow it to perform automatically conversions between variants at least as well as the current LanguageConverter does.

Is this technical discussion in scope for the Language Committee? Cscott (talk) 20:46, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for writing here! To clarify, I did not say that "technical discussions about the future of editing languages with variants were in the scope of the language committee", but that "the future of editing languages with variants" is not a technical matter in the first place, hence it needs to be discussed like all other language setup proposals.
If (as I understand it) the "other proposal" is about creating separate wikis for each variant, that would need to go through the usual language proposal process, but an exception to the Language proposal policy should be granted to ignore the rule which excludes proposals for existing languages.
As for the "interwiki synchronization" (quite an euphemism), AFAIK the only current example of it is the Serbo-Croatian Wikipedia, for which see stats:EN/TablesWikipediaSH.htm. --Nemo 20:56, 18 September 2015 (UTC)
Let's not put the cart before the horse. There is a continuum of ways to implement "separate wikis", from separately-tagged entries in the article database all the way to separate domain names. It's premature to assume a particular implementation of this proposal, past the basic fact that the article variants would be kept separate and not commingled in a single document as LC currently does. Similarly, "interwiki synchronization" is indeed quite a broad topic, but part of this discussion would be a technical consensus on what workflows are acceptable. Note that even LanguageConverter has existing synchronization workflows, since we allow monolingual ("mono-variant"?) users to edit content, and they will inevitably introduce mistakes into the variant they don't read. So we are already "synchronizing" the variants by correcting these mistakes. I would actually be very interested in reports from community about how this process is currently organized and performed, to better understand what parts are particularly painful and could be improved. Cscott (talk) 21:20, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

Rhaeto-rumantsch projects

Dear Lang-com members, I would address a question. Wikimedia CH has in its 2016 annual plan the revitalization of the projects in Rhaeto-romance languages.

Anyway our vision is that a right approach is not to support http://rm.wikipedia.org at the moment but to support ancillary projects like Wikitionary and Wikisource.

Why? The answer is simple. Rhaeto-romance group is a collection of local languages of Alps with a lot of similarities, understable each other but without a unique version except for the languages spoken in Switzerland where the Canton of Grisons tried to create a super-language without big success. At the moment, also within the members of Wikimedia CH, who speaks a rhaeto-romance language can contribute in the local version but not in the superlanguage. About the versions spoken in the north-Italian valleys the problem is more complex because they have different versions either in diacritic signs to write the local versions.

The picture is more complex because these languages are considered endangered. The number of speakers is decreasing a lot and other languages are taking a predominant role in these valleys: German is substituting it in Switzerland and in South Tyrol and Italian in Trentino and Veneto. There is a linguistic protection in Switzerland and in some Italian valleys because they are integrated in the educational programs for schools, but the results are not satisfying. Mainly in Italian valleys some local associations have no funds to assure a local protection to support these languages.

Wikimedia CH is acting quickly to support the most endangered linguistic versions (mainly in Veneto) at least to save their heritage in Wikimedia projects. We are contacting the local libraries which are destined to be closed cause the lack of funds.

For this reason Wikimedia CH thinks that projects which would keep this diversity but would also preserve their similarities can have a good impact. The wikipedia in Romansh is not the good project to support this diversity because it requires a superlanguage used by a limited number of speakers but Wikisource and Wiktionary can be interesting also for the donation of this content in order to maintain the integrity and to help Wikimedia Ch in this project of content donation.

At the moment the upload of Rhaeto-Romance books is split in some projects:

We are working on Italian Wikisource but this is not helpful. We can assure two/three volunteers to work around the project but also the commitment to push local communities and associations and schools to contribute in their own linguistic version if these projects are designed to host several linguistic versions.

In addition we would ask what is the process to re-open the wiktionary in Romansh to populate it in connection with the uploading of the texts used in Wikisource and also through external sources like Pledari.

In our first approach with the local communities these projects are considered strategical to plan a revitalization of the rhaeto-romansh community. --Ilario (talk) 14:30, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

Well, I'd recommend to establish one location for rm wikisource texts, so either www.wikisource or it.wikisource. It doesn't matter much which one is chosen.
rm.wiktionary.org could be reopened if the test-project on Incubator gets active (which currently only has a Main Page). --MF-W 01:00, 6 October 2015 (UTC)

Request for early approval of Wp/khw

Letter to the all respected members of Language Committee

Being a Wiki Test Admin in Wp/khw i am requesting the all respected members of the Language Committee for early approval of Khowar Wikipedia i.e. khw.wikipedia.org -- Rehmat Aziz Chitrali 05:41, 19 October 2015 (UTC)

Wikinews and Wikivoyage Thai

Please Open that by final decision please Now Wiki Thai want to open them [7] [8] -Parintar (talk)

Western Balochi language Wikipedia (bgn)

Hello members of Langcom.

Western Balochi language Wikipedia was active in few months with more than 3 active contributors and now have more than 4860 articles in West. Balochi language,so kindly can approve it.--Ibrahim khashrowdi (talk) 23:03, 22 October 2015 (UTC)

Livvi-Karelian Wikipedia

I would like to ask to consider Livvi-Karelian Wikipedia approval. I think that the Ilja.mos can act as an expert for this language --Kaftaj (talk) 07:54, 25 October 2015 (UTC)

  • The local user mustn't be an expert due to the policy (at least as I know it). But anyway the project has a significant activity, all most-needed messages have been translated, so I think that the Livvi-Karelian Wikipedia is ready to be approved. --Ghiutun 08:15, 25 October 2015 (UTC)

Humble Request to Hon'ble Members of Language Committee

  • As a Test Admin of Wp/khw Khowar Wikipedia Project I on behalf of the Khowar language communities of Pakistan, Afghanist, India and Xinjiang(China) humbly request the all respectable members of the language comittee for early approval, creation of Khowar Wkipedia i.e. khw.wikipedia.org. The Khowar language is spoken in Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Xingjiang(China). I have created a test page for Khowar language in incubator i.e. Wikipedia Khowar (Khowar Language Wikipedia), On behalf of the abovementioned Khowar speaking four countries for early approval and creation and normalization of Khowar Wikipedia edition. Khowar is one of spoken 14 languages in Chitral(Pakistan). It will be useful to Khowar internet users to report news from worldwide. I strongly feel it deserves its own Wikipedia. Being a test admin i have translated all most used messages into khowar. I have created test Khowar Wikipedia at Khowar Wikpedia.--Rehmat Aziz Chitrali 05:22, 6 November 2015 (UTC)

Is it possible to launch new Wikinews project with only one active editor

Hi,
I'd like to know is it possible to launch new Wikinews (I mean not in incubator) if there is only one active user, who had improving the project 1,5 months? I saw that there's a rule - projects from incubator can move to its own subdomain (for example to et.wikinews.org) only when there is at least 3 active and not grayed out editors, but I really hope, that it is possible.
Best
Postituvi (talk) 20:49, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

The answer is no. If that only active user for some reason stops editing, the project would be dead, and we dont want that. --MF-W 23:39, 30 November 2015 (UTC)
Wikisource would be better, as old texts are the very point of Wikisource. ;-) Nemo 10:19, 1 December 2015 (UTC)

Activity report

The last one is from two years ago. Update? PiRSquared17 (talk) 17:44, 12 November 2015 (UTC)

My Dear PiRSuared, thanks for reply. Please check the recent activity here [9] and help us for early creation of Khowar Wikipedia --Rehmat Aziz Chitrali 07:09, 14 November 2015 (UTC)
Mr PiRSquared17 can see here for Activity of Khowar wiki test.--Ibrahim khashrowdi (talk) 23:37, 20 November 2015 (UTC)
I am not a member or observer of LangCom. Sorry. PiRSquared17 (talk) 03:06, 21 November 2015 (UTC)
Waiting for response from any member of LangCom. The language Committee has approved Wp/fax as eligible but the Wp/khw has not yet been verified as eligible. The total speakers of Wp/fax is 6500/- only but the total speakers of wp/khw are more than 01 million and Khowar language is spoken in Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and China, I request the LangCom for approval of Khowar Wikipedia as early as possible--Zaheeruddin25 (talk) 17:00, 21 November 2015 (UTC)
Waiting for LangCom's response --Rehmat Aziz Chitrali 11:47, 8 December 2015 (UTC)

Wikinews and Wikivoyage Thsi

When you will open wikinews and wikivoyage Thai I create a request at Requests for new languages especially Wikivoyage--Parintar (talk) 21:29, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

wikipedia laki

we working on Wikipedia laki test edition and we cmplate it's but my languge not exist in languge list test like wiki incbotor or wiki media ....pleas add to list for final cmplate to translation for me languge -Hosseinblue (talk) 15:02, 12 December 2015 (UTC)


Wikinews and Wikivoyage Thai

Please Open that by final decision please Now Wiki Thai want to open them [10] [11] --Parintar (talk) 11:28, 15 December 2015 (UTC)

Requests for new languages/Wikivoyage Esperanto

Hi! Can you please decide about our project and create a new wiki? We have a strong and active community, and, what is really necessary, a lot of content. --Ochilov (talk) 11:05, 18 December 2015 (UTC)

Support : Request to include Latin script Konkani in the gom Wikipedia

Hello Language Committee, Painstakingly I have worked to build up articles in the Latin script Konkani on Gom Wikipedia. I have added more than 800 pages approximately. And also others have contributed. There is a lot of Konkani knowledge available in Latin Script which needs a platform to put it together in one place. This will be accessible to the Konkani speaking community spread world wide. We are not getting any grants. It is our love for our Mother tongue and the desire to make its knowledge accessible to our community worldwide.

The Konkani speaking community located outside India speak the mother tongue Konkani at home. But the script is an issue for them to access. As not all of them can understand the Devanagiri or Kannada Script. The Latin script is internationally known. There are many languages which do not have script of their own but use Latin Script. Tourist and other people who do not know the vernacular scripts will find the Latin script helpful also, Since Goa is also a Tourist destination.

I have used a software to transliterate articles from Latin Konkani to Devanagiri Konkani and these have been posted in the Gom Wikipedia. But as I have mentioned not all can read the Devanagiri or Kannada Script, Latin Script becomes handy since all know the Latin script. It would be injustice to the Konkani language and spread of its knowledge if the Latin Script is not included as many who cannot understand the vernacular script will have no access. They will find Gom Wikipedia unaccessible just becuase of the script. I also intend to continue transliterating literature available now on Gom Wikipedia into Latin Script.

Do consider this earnest and sincere request to include the Latin Script articles of Konkani in the Gom Wikipedia. Together the Devanagiri and Latin Script Konkani will enrich each other for the spread of knowledge in Konkani to Konkani speaking community which are spread all over the world. They are mostly settled in Canada, United Kingdom, Portugal, Australia, USA, Pakistan and the Middle East. These people do not know the vernacular script but know the Latin Script and will be able to read and understand Knowledge in their Mother tongue - Konkani. Hope Wikipedia does no injustice to the Latin Script Konkani articles. It is already suffering due to suppression from various sources.

Hope the Language Committee does not suppress the Latin Script Konkani which has been used for more than 400 years and is still being used daily

Thanking you in anticipation of a positive action

Rosario Fernandes https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Rosario_Fernandes

Retrieved from "https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Language_committee/2015&oldid=15819723"