Wikimedia Meta-Wiki

Proposals for closing projects/Closure of Venda Wikipedia

< Proposals for closing projects

Ending per #Oppose closing ve Wikipedia: Result: Keep Even though this wiki is inactive again. But there is clearly no consensus in favour of sending it back to the incubator. --Johannes Rohr 12:38, 18 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]


Venda Wikipedia is now active --- may we please close this request?

I've just updated the status at Proposals for closing projects. If the discussion remains inactive, I would propose to close it within seven days. --Johannes Rohr 12:47, 23 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]


I hereby propose to close the Venda Wikipedia. Venda is a Bantu language spoken in South Africa and Zimbabwe. This Wiki is almost completely devoid of content. After cleaning out all the spam (Thanks to Jon Harald Søby), there are four pages left on this wiki: The ve:Main Page, ve:Bivhili ("Bible"), ve:Yesu Kristo ("Jesus Christ") and ve:Tshumelo ya Nyambo dza Lushaka («National Language Services»)(cf. ve:Special:Allpages).

ve:Bivhili is apparently a list of the books of the bible, and ve:Yesu Kristo has no text at all. So the only article (in the sense of "page that contains several full sentences") is ve:Tshumelo ya Nyambo dza Lushaka.

All of this wouldn't be much of an issue, if it weren't for the spammers, that have massively abused this Wiki (like many other inactive, small Wikis). Please have a look at ve:Special:Recentchanges and convince yourself, that the only activity on this wiki is the posting of spam/crap and its eventual removal.

Today I spent some time, identifying all the spam on ve: and hz:, yesterday I did the same for kr:. But I seriously doubt, whether it is worth the effort. By itself, this empty Wiki will not attract any user, because it has nothing to offer. Keeping it open would only make sense if

  1. Someone volunteers as admin and keeps this Wiki spam-free;
  2. at least one (native) speaker turns up and provides some initial content, plus a localized wiki interface

--Johannes Rohr 20:01, 17 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Support closing ve Wikipedia

edit
  1. Support Inactive and devoid of content. :) Cbrown1023 22:04, 17 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  2. Support As outlined above. --Johannes Rohr 10:36, 18 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  3. Support See Johannes and Cbrown Thijs!H 00:14, 19 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  4. Support Sad to see a project go, but there's no real activity or content in the Venda Wikipedia. Nishkid64 16:21, 19 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  5. Support per nom, inactive project. It can be reopened if interest is shown later. --Coredesat (en.wp) 02:37, 8 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  6. Support per above Baristarim 20:31, 11 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  7. Support.The inactive project as a whole.--Afinogenoff 04:27, 17 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  8. Support As outlined above. --Grcampbell 23:31, 1 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Neutral

edit
  1. Neutral I would like to echo Node's response. The Tajik Wikipedia was completely empty and full of spam a few months ago, now we have the most articles in all Central Asian Wikipedias. An active effort to find users needs to be made. Perhaps translate.org.za could be contacted, especially considering this is an official language of South Africa. - FrancisTyers 17:12, 19 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose closing ve Wikipedia

edit
  1. Oppose Every Wikipedia started out empty. Look at some of them now -- tg.wp was empty a few months ago, look at it now! Give it some time. --Node ue 00:16, 24 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    And re:admin, I would do it but that would be too controversial I think :-) --Node ue 00:17, 24 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  2. Oppose Disk space does not cost too much. Urvabara 15:22, 8 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  3. Oppose I would like the Venda Wikipedia section to be opened. I speak Venda and I only found out about wikipedia today. I am prepared to work on it for my people. Ralinala 15 February 2007 (UJ)
  4. Oppose If a Wikipedia doesn't have users, try to recruit them. Closing is not the way. There are 750.000 Venda speakers and I don't believe that there aren't any people willing to write for Wikipedia. - Taalkóndege 13:20, 17 February 2007 (UTC)
  5. Oppose What a harsh policy maker Mr Johannes Roth: it is obvious that Bantu languages do not have the resources to keep this Wikipedia running like the English or German wikipedia; closing it just for that reason is insane! 65.8.53.130 17:18, 17 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  6. Oppose Give it time to grow, even if it becomes less active again.--Grace E. Dougle 15:05, 19 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  7. Oppose A bit of time and some TLC! Closing it down will achieve nothing. Sfacets 15:17, 19 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  8. Oppose Again, give it time - even if it goes for years without any editors, it should be as eas as possible for anyone who wants to to add an article - that's what wiki is about! --xensyriaT 22:15, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  9. Oppose Every language should have a wikipedia. We need more, not less. What the speakers do with it is really up to them, not anything a non-speaker can micro-manage. Blockinblox 22:54, 22 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    No, it is not entirely up to the speakers, what they do with the ve: subdomain: NPOV, respecting copyright and not least the goal of creating an encyclopaedia, rather than a random collection of text - these basic conditions are not disposable. Every subdomain of wikipedia.org is a wikimedia project and the ultimate responsibility for it rests with the Wikimedia foundation. --Johannes Rohr 07:45, 23 February 2007 (UTC)\[reply]
    I realize that but my point is it would probably take someone who is literate in Venda to be able to assess things like NPOV or on-topic. One who is illiterate in Venda is obviously rather limited, beyond possibly being able to recognize whether or not it really is Venda or something else. So that is why these things are largely up to the speakers, and not non-speakers. Blockinblox 17:23, 23 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    Reiterate my earlier Oppose. Suggest we close this vote now that that wiki is active. --Node ue 01:52, 27 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  10. Oppose some articles are enough, even if they trickle in from 1 time users, it only takes one native speaker to go buck wild and a wikipedia can bloom in just days, lets find someone to watchover spam, or at the harshest freeze it untill a spamwatcher can be found, and make every effort to find native speakers
  11. Oppose looks active enough. --Tone 17:40, 14 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  12. Oppose it looks active to me too ro:User:Ilie Moromete--Ilie Moromete 16:10, 11 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  13. Oppose - although it now appears inactive again, there is now some content, which should be kept in order to encourage the future development of a community. Warofdreams 12:22, 25 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  14. Oppose There are many more articles in it now--Jdavid2008 09:04, 18 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Comments regarding ve Wikipedia

edit
  1. Oppose I would like to edit the Venda Wikipedia and I can't because it is locked.Can you please help me to unlock it. Ralinala 15 February 2007 (UJ)
It is not locked, only the main page is semi-protected to prevent vandalism. When you create your account it will become writeable after four days. Apart from that, you can create and edit without restrictions. It is highly encouraged to sign on, however. --Johannes Rohr 11:07, 15 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]



plz don't close it. it is useful 2 some of us, Tshivenda speaker. Rome wasn't bult by 1 day. just improve it and it will attract other people. closing it is not the answer. think about the people like me who visit it and other who will know about it. 

marcia
Marcia, for years, this Wiki was totally devoid of content. There was only spam. That is, why I proposed to have it closed. Now, the fact that ve:User:Ralinala has started editing and has in fact contributed a large number of articles within just a few days it a very positive sign and if it continues like this, this Wiki is almost guaranteed not to be shut down. So, keep going!
It would be best,
  • if Ralinala would not remain the only contributor, so if you want to join, please go ahead and create your account!
  • Second, I'd highly recommend all prospective Venda Wikipedians to have a look at Help:How_to_start_a_new_Wikipedia, (even if this is technically not the same, as the ve: subdomain has already been there for years) There are some essentials that at best should be done the right way right from the start, e.g. categories, interlanguage links, etc. --Johannes Rohr 18:54, 19 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Retrieved from "https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Proposals_for_closing_projects/Closure_of_Venda_Wikipedia&oldid=19069334"