User:GerardM/archive

Requesting bot status

I request bot status for RobotGMwikt on the nl: en: fr: it: ja: wiktionaries. It is intended as a interwiki bot between these languages it will also do all kinds of maintenance work on the non capitalised wiktionaries. GerardM 06:42, 6 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Is there a policy on bots for Wiktionary? (Also asked at Wiktionary:Wiktionary:Beer parlour#Bots) Angela 09:09, 8 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Thanks Angela, for the notice; without it no-one would have known this was happening. There has been no general discussion of such policy on en:wiktionary, but I will certainly be encouraging that it take place. I know nothing of the policy position on the others. I oppose GerardM's application on the grounds that "all kinds of maintenance work" is potentially much too far ranging. In the past he has frequently replaced headings and language names with templates in a manner that has not been generally accepted by the community. At the very least he must be more specific about what this bot will do. Eclecticology 11:18, 8 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Hi Gerard, I've moved the above from Requests for permissions. Please could you reapply once you can show nl: en: fr: it: and ja: approve of this bot. Thanks. Angela 15:36, 8 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I have set this on nl:wikt. en does not seem to have consensus yet, and the bot does not have an account on ja, fr, or it so I can't do those ones. I don't know if those 3 have a bot policy. Angela 19:33, 14 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Looxix's email address

Hi Gerard, sorry for the non-working email (I disable at my very beginning here and never enable it after). It's should work now, but you can use directly: luc-dot-vanoostenryck-at-easynet-be

See you,

Looxix

UTF-8

You wrote that the Dutch wiktionary had been converted to UTF-8. The Swedish wiktionary has been waiting for the conversion for half a year now and I wonder who is responsible for the conversions. We are really anxious to get the conversion done. // Wellparp 11:10, 31 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I cannot have written that it HAS been converted to UTF-8. It has not. We are waiting for it as much as you are and, we have been told that it will be with the release 1.5 release. The conversion will then be trivial, now it is a BIG job with downtime for that database. We are biding our time. For wiktionaries this is different as they rely on their ability to create words in Japanese, Farsi, Thai and other languages as well. These are converted after some persuation. GerardM 11:16, 31 Jan 2005 (UTC)

On Meta:Babel you did. Who should I try to persuade to do the conversion of the Swedish Wiktionary? // Wellparp 15:08, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC)

End-user image suppression

Gerard, if you have specifc issues with this idea please discuss them on the talk page instead of posting your discussion to the article page. —Christiaan 12:48, 23 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I have specific issues and I do discuss them on the talk page but I also want it acknowledged that this is a controversial topic. The best place for that is on the page itself. GerardM 12:53, 23 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Please do not post your personal opinions and discussion on the article page. —Christiaan 12:54, 23 Feb 2005 (UTC)

You have now reverted 5 times Gerard, please do not do so a 6th time. Please discuss on the talk page any specific issues you have instead of unilaterally imposing your own point of view. —Christiaan 13:26, 23 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I do discuss it on the talk page and I state the controversial nature of your proposal on the page itself, I will do it an nth time. It is funny how you fail to see the consequences of starting with censorship. GerardM 13:41, 23 Feb 2005 (UTC)

And you discuss on the article page. Please stop doing this. It is not your personal soapbox. Please also refrain from adding Wikipedia NPOV tags to the article. —Christiaan 13:48, 23 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I do not discuss on the article page. As to soap box, is it your soap box ? I stated that the article is controversial. That is something you cannot deny. GerardM 13:53, 23 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Please do not post Wikipedia NPOV tags on this exploratory article. Please do not post discussion on the article page. If you have any specific issue please attempt to resolve them on the talk page instead of posting your personal opinions to the article page. —Christiaan 14:05, 23 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Please do not vandalise pages on Wikimedia

Please do not vandalise pages on Wikimedia. http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=End-user_image_suppression&curid=15602&diff=0&oldid=0 —Christiaan 14:08, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Hi Gerard,

op http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Kennisnet las ik dat jullie in gesprek zijn met kennisnet inzake hosting en verdere samenwerking. in het verleden heb ik namens ilse media contact gehad met Andre Engels inzake ideen rond hosting, samenwerking (zie mail hieronder). Indien nog van toepassing zou ik graag nog eens kijken naar moeglijke samenwerkingsverbanden.

Ik zal deze post ook naar Oscar sturen,

mvgr Nils Rooijmans nils@ilse.net

On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 16:00:53 +0100 "Nils Rooijmans" <nils.rooijmans@mail.ilsemedia.nl> wrote: >Hi Andre, > [...] >inmiddels heeft ilse een zoekdienst beschikbaar >vergelijkbaar met >http://www.google.com/search?q=ohm&btnG=Met+Google+zoeken+in+Wikipedia&d >omains=http%3A%2F%2Fnl.wikipedia.org&sitesearch=http%3A%2F%2Fnl.wikipedi >a.org

Mooi! Wat is de URL, dan kunnen we het op de site plaatsen met de vergelijkbare services van Google en Yahoo.

>daarnaast zouden we zoals gezegd graag spreken over evt >verdere samenwerking op het gebied van betere search, >hosting/traffic/content.

[...]

Afgezien daarvan hoor ik graag wat jullie aanbiedingen/wensen op dit punt zouden zijn.

Andre Engels

the ultimate wiktionary

hello, I think a wiktionary would be a great idea but right now it's only a big mess. I've started to think about improvements that could be done to mediawiki to be better suited to a dictionary. These ideas are quite similar to The ultimate Wiktionary. Has someone started coding about it ? I would be interested to see if there is an active project to provide a better software. Koxinga 10:45, 26 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I hope you had a look at the nl: or it:wiktionary they are examples of how easy it is to already do stuff. Yes, we are about ready to start coding. This is however a major project and we have to ascertain that it integrates well in the Mediawiki software and within the community. :) GerardM 06:06, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I can't read dutch nor italian, can you give me some specific links to show what has already been done ? Koxinga 18:45, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)

From the interlanguage links you find links to these wiktionaries. They have similar content as the English wiktionary however by using templates a large body of work is language independent. This can be seen by looking at the edit screen. This translates well from one wiktionary to the next.

It proves that in principle things can be moved into a relational database. There remains 20% that needs translating from one language to the next. GerardM 19:09, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Would you be so kind as to update http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikidata/Timetable if you can? --Henri de Solages 16:10, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

Re: Back to the ugly old image redirection technique

I had to, because someone disabled the feature that I had been using. See what it would look like if I hadn't changed it. – Minh Nguyễn (talk, blog) 04:56, 5 Mar 2005 (UTC)

This was also true for the nl:wikipedia, things have been changed there since. GerardM 06:51, 5 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Reactie onder conflictbemiddeling

Given the amount of time spend on one troll it is not sustainable to spend this much effort on one troll. By your own estimation you have spend 50 hours alone on this issue. At the same time many others were forced to do likewise. It is nice that you consider wikix and kiwix and all the other sock puppets not the same person. I am of the opinion that any more time spend on this issue is too much. Leave the guy blocked and if you insist, we can have an official vote because anything less is not what I would agree to. GerardM 09:37, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Beste Gerard, het is niet de bedoeling dat je je zonder mijn toestemming met de bemiddeling gaat bemoeien. Ik heb je reactie dan ook moeten verwijderen. Jcb 11:22, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Sorry for slagging you off about Ultimate Wiktionary

Hi Gerard.I think you are the driver of the "Ultimate Wiktionary Project". In various places I've been a bit abrasive about this. Mainly about the lack of communication with the current Wiktionary user community. But, of course, I was being very ethno-centric. I really was referring only to the en:Wiktionary community.

In fact I will try to assist in bridging the gap, informing the en:Wiktionary community about the "Ultimate Wiktionary project". Unless, of course, you don't want increased visibility of the project, because you might get more idiots like asking a lot of questions, diverting your efforts.--Richardb 14:30, 30 May 2005 (UTC)If you want to reply, it would be better to reply to me on en:Wiktionary, as I don't come to WikiMedia often, though I might be doing so from now on.

Category:Babel

Would you like to tell me why you created category Babel, though we have already category: users and meta category policy says it is not a good idea to make many categories. Cheers, --Aphaia | Translate Election | ++ 05:49, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Babel is functionality used as a template and as a functionality in several other projects. It helps when you know people have an ability in a language. This is something you do not get from a "users" category. GerardM 03:56, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I don't understand your explanation. Meta has already Users category and their function is totally compatible. And babel is a name from Bible, hence POV. Users are more neutral. I already know some editors who are Buddhists complaints this name. It is not principally suitable for meta in my opinion.

And I think you don't need to tell me what is "Babel template"- it is I that introduced those templates to meta. Users categories were created at that time to correspond wth each template. So I said it is redundant.

Moreover if you are right, why didn't you have "Babel" category on Commons. Please explain. --Aphaia | Translate Election | ++ 04:28, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Babel is not a reference to bible but to the building of the tower of Babylon where at some stage people started to speak different languages and could not cooperate with each other. Referring to something in the Bible, certainly the old testament is not POV. The only thing that can be said is that people may not know the bible. There is nothing inherently wrong with it.

I thank you for including these templates, they are a cool idea :) As to a "Babel" category, there is no such thing. I introduced a template that includes all these other templates .. :) GerardM 05:37, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

?? A Wiktionary page has one or more Words ??

In Talk:Tables for Wiktionary I am asking questions about the proposed UW Tables.--Richardb 14:02, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

What tools are you using for managing the UW design, project, feature requests etc ?

Are you using any online tools for managing the development of UW, such as SourceForge, which is available for managing co-operative, collaborative Free-Source software projects.--Richardb 14:07, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

UW is an integral part of Mediawiki. We discuss things on Meta and the wiktionary-l I also mention things on my blog. GerardM 09:42, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)

bug?

dear gerard, i cannot open http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/meta/a/a5/HollandOpen.ppt.pdf and get an error-report instead :-( greetz, oscar 21:20, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

You have to download it and then remove the pdf bit; it is actually a PPT but these are not allowed for upload.. GerardM 05:10, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Img on it.wiki

Hi Gerard,
could you add info about licencing on this image? Thanks.
Cheers,

Frieda 14:06, 28 Jun 2005 (UTC)

case sensitivity for fi.wiktionary

Hi GerardM! I noticed that you have been active in the discussions about case sensitivity, so I turn to you for answers. We in fi.wikt have decided that we want to go for case sensitivity, but I can't find the instruktion on how to do it. Can you help with that? -Samulili 19:50, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Brion did do the good work on the Wiktionary content :) So now everything is lowercase. GerardM 11:27, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Wikijunior Solar System Needs You

Danny Wool has challenged us to get Wikijunior Solar System out to hurricane evacuees by October 32005. This is going to be tough!

You expressed interest in WikiJunior. Would you be willing now to join the push to get Wikijunior Solar System completed? Come see Wikijunior Solar System!

Thanks --SV Resolution(Talk) 17:45, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Your advice please

Hello!

I asked on the wikimedia channel, and it seems you have some experience negotiating with the outside world. Here's my situation:

I'm working on the French Sign Language wikibook and tomorrow afternoon (Friday 21 oct), I will speaking with the people who produce this French sign language dictionary. My goal is to get them to agree to let us wikimedians import their video into our universe.

Could you please give me some general advice as to how to pull these negotiations off succesfully?

I don't really have any precise questions to ask... I guess I am somewhat worried about is

• Dealing with the standard wiki fud (but there will be vandals! or idiots!)
• Showing that we really have something to offer them
• Not tripping over any legal or judicial no-nos

So if you have any ideas, I'd be delighted to hear them. Soon ;-) Many thanks, -- Kowey 21:29, 20 October 2005 (UTC)

Hi again, I have met with these people... and they agree to cooperate! In principle at least. There's still more people to meet with and talk to, but at least some bits of this group are on board. Thanks anyway. -- Kowey 00:41, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

I am sorry that i have not been online for a few days. I think it is thrilling to see that we will have actual content for signed languages. This is a great moment. Thank you for this effort and let us support this to find its place :) GerardM 11:00, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

Capital letters and

I thought I'd drop you a line about your Bot, which makes interwiki links between articles with capital/non-capital letters. [1] I wonder if this needs to be changed. -Samulili 16:40, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

Wikizine

Hi, I am w:nl:gebruiker:Walter of the dutch Wikipedia. I am writing you because your are listed as ambassador of your wiki (Wikiwoordenboek). I have something to say that I think you will find useful and possibly others of your wiki also.

You know it is not easy for the members of a local wiki to be informed about what is going on in the higher levels of the Wikimedia family. This because of the language problem and the high level of fragmentation of places where you can find information.

I am now making a weekly news letter (Wikizine) that attempts to provide the news of the Wikimedia projects. The concept is to list only a very short description of the news an give the relevant url to the subject. I want it to be short, only give the news that is important for all projects. The target audience include the ambassadors. It is for people who are interested in what it going on outside there own wiki. I emphasize on the news that is practical-technical. The information comes form several "news"-pages on several wikis, the mailinglists and IRC. There will be news I can not discover. If you have news found somewhere or from you own wiki please let my know. wikizine AT wikipedia.be

I can only create one version in something that supposed to be English. I count on the readers to inform there local wiki about the news in there own language.

Wikizine is send by use of the mailinglist Announce-l. It is only used for this. So people can subscribe without being swamped by emails like the lists.

http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/announce-l

I hope that you and others of your wiki will subscribe to Wikizine and give feedback. So that Wikizine can become really a source where Wikimedians can find out what is going on. Greetings, w:nl:gebruiker:Walter PS: do not repond here. I will not see it. Dag Gerard ;-)

---

Dag Gerard. Ik heb je commentaar gewist " :( GerardM 20:56, 25 November 2005 (UTC)". Ik betreur dit ook sterk. Maar door die bewerking dacht ik dat dat jij Elly gede-sysopt had. Ik heb Elly het al laten weten. Toevallig merkte ik daarna op dat dit niet zo was en daarna ook dat je geen steward bent. Ik dacht dat je dat wel was en nam die opmerking op als zijnde dat het gedaan was. Daarom heb ik het weg genomen, anderen kunnen ook die vergissing maken. Groet, --Walter 21:16, 25 November 2005 (UTC)

votes

please see this edit, and compare it with your promise... grtz, oscar 14:08, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

thx :-) grtz, oscar 01:12, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Meta-problems in general

Hello, please have a look at Meta-problems in general. Thank you very much. -- Simplicius 12:49, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

report on 13th feb 2006

please let me know when (and where) you publish your report, then i'll add the picture ;-) oscar 12:03, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Bot flag

You're welcome! :o) --Paginazero 07:21, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

wikiwords.org from proz.com

Hallo,

I've been waiting long for an ultimate dictionary from wikimedia, but unfortunately your proiect didn't launch any working result. No there's an effort from proz.com and I wanted to ask you of your opinion about this proiect and if it wouldn't be possible to cooperate with them? de:Benutzer:thkoch2001

http://www.wikiwords.org/

Hoi, I am well aware of the WikiWords project. I do want to cooperate with anyone and I certainly want to cooperate with ProZ. Technically, ProZ has taken a different technical tack from what we are doing in WiktionaryZ. The technical differences between the two "competing" projects makes for lessons where both projects can benefit. When ProZ makes a choise for a compatible license, we can collaborate on what matters most; the data.

I have discussed this in the past with Henry. We can all benefit from all the great effort that has happened in the past, we can when we discuss on technique and collaborate on data. We can do this when we attribute well, when we do not think and act as adversaries. We do not need to because we aim to do the same thing; provide great lexicological, terminological and thesaurus content to the users that we hope to attract.

Oh, by the way, WiktionaryZ is a functioning result in that it gives you a lot of relational data in a Wiki environment. We are working hard towards the first editability. This has had several setbacks. Then again, I have seen one of the experimental versions of the software with some editability. It needs to be ported to the existing data, that proved not that easy. GerardM 20:53, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

wikipedia bakhtiari

Hello GerardM Please; show the way to Approval process. I Also support this action and that it is a need in Bakhtiari society. It is only you who could help me. OS. Unless you help me; It will be deleted.Thanks. [[2]]--Behdarvandyani 17:11, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Meta:Administrators

Congratulations! You are now a Meta administrator. Please read the Meta:Deletion policy before deleting anything. You can find admin tasks within the Meta-Wiki organisation category and on Meta:Requests for help from a sysop or bureaucrat. Angela 16:11, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

liquidthreads

Thanks for adding that link. I saw it and thought that I had added it. Silly me.

Ill-will?

What ill-will are you talking about in Proposals for closing projects#Closure of Moldovan Wikipedia? There is simply no community. You have only one contributor. This contributor can't contribute in this language. But this contributor makes a political statement by copying articles from the Romanian wikipedia and saying they are in Moldovan. Dpotop 13:07, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Also, take a look at who supports mo.wiki in the vote: Russians, you, and Node_ue. Do you really feel comfortable supporting a Stalinist creation supported by Russians because of post-Imperial feelings? Dpotop 13:06, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Translator templates

See Translator deu-eng and Translator eng-deu, where I added some stuff at the end to better deal with unwanted entries in categories. Now the template itself, category pages and sample uses can be kept from appearing in the list of translators. Please consider using {{Translator ksh-deu|skipcat=yes}} where appropriate, and use the code from the above two template in new templates as well.

How about additional templates saying "... translates ... into ... and inverse" ?

-- Purodha Blissenbach 08:24, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Approval of wikipedia in Belarusian (normative) language?

Hi, sorry for trespassing on your time, but could you, as a member of m:Special projects subcommittees/New languages, give the issue Talk:Special_projects_subcommittees/New_languages#Approval of wikipedia in Belarusian (normative) language? a look? Thank you. Yury Tarasievich 11:40, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

Hoi, we are looking into this. And it has been discussed with several people including Erik. GerardM 17:49, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

Three letter language codes

Hello Gerard, I was told that both Sabine and you would be able to help me on this, and thought that I'd better ask you this time as I have already bothered Sabine often enough. Could you please tell me what the three letter language code is for Hungarian. Many thanks in advance, LouisBB 13:55, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

It is "hun". You can verify that for example from http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/documentation.asp?id=hun. -- mzlla 14:01, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

Or by checking the Hungarian portal at WiktionaryZ..

Many thanks Gerard, done. Regards, LouisBB 16:01, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

Transbabel

Hello,

I spend weeks to set up an effective and ergonomic system to centralize the traduction efforts in the french wikipedia.

See fr:Projet:Traduction

Now, I'm considering to port its infrastructure to the english wikipedia, and then let people import it elsewhere (for example in Meta).

Obviously, it would be very useful if the system was coherent between the different languages of wikipedia (and meta) like it is for Babel.

I had like you did the idea to use templates on each translators home page (and then categories) instead of a list for people who wants to participate to the traduction

this template and the category fr:Category:Wikitraducteur_en are 100% equivalent to Category:Translators_fra-eng :

• The syntax we use in :fr is {{Boîte utilisateur|Traduction|Traduction/de|Traduction/en}}
• Once ported to :en, this should become {{user box|Translation|Translation/de|Translation/fr}}
• The syntax you use is {{{{Transl-1|fra-eng|fra-ger}}

It would be great if we could standardize on the syntax while it is possible. It is possible now, because there are not a lot of people who uses transbabel here, and I haven't port fr:Projet:Traduction to the english wikipedia yet.

Your syntax is better because it does not assume the language used as target. But it invents its own template (transl-1234) which doesn't seem necessary to me (we can just use the user boxes), and it uses three-letter languages codes, while wikipedians are much more used to two-letters languages code. (fr.wikipedia.org, {{#babel:nl-N|category=|de-1|category=}}. It would be more simple to use two-letters languages code, and three-letters language code only if it doesn't exist.

So our common syntax could be :

• {{user box|Translation|Translation/fr-en|Translation/fr-de|Translation/nap-de}}

What do you think ?

To answer, please leave me a message : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Emailuser/Jmfayard-fauxnez

I do not think it a good idea particularly not standardising on the ISO-639-3 codes. They are better known by translators that the Wikimedia codes that are both not standard, infringe in several places on the standard and are extensions on the standard in a way that is against the terms of use of the standard. GerardM 07:57, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

farsi left to right ?

hi just wanted to make a correction ,the farsi language is from right to left not left to right.i admire your efforts and dedication to achieve this difficult task. mike pegahi

I know .. I sometimes say it wrong, but I do know :) GerardM 00:13, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Public archiving permission

Hello GerardM. Do you have any objections to publicly archiving your IRC and email conversations with the language subcommittee? —{admin} Pathoschild 22:03:34, 03 March 2007 (UTC)

Question

Why You delete my approval to Latgalian wikipedia? Thank You. [[3]]

I said it in the comments.. This space is for arguments .. a vote is not an argument. And also even if I am a strong supporter of winning the lottery.. I may even vote for it.. it makes no difference. It is just clutter. GerardM 21:03, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Latgalian ISO code

Hello, my English is not very, so, sometimes it's very hard to explane the situation :( Clear situation is like that: Latgalian doesn't have ISO code, officially it's consider to be dialect, latgalians disagree, in some web sites, ex. [4] Latgalian (as Latgola - teritory) is been marked. I very want to now what You spoke about ISO code of Latgola (may be and about Samogitian could say smth). My e-mail is zordsdavini et gmail.com. All sides have to be happy. Zordsdavini 06:48, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

Re: URGENT

Re: URGENT A native latgalian speaker who can represent the latgalian community please urgently contact LangCom. You can send mail from the user pages of GerardM or Bèrto 'd Sèra.

Hi, Gerard, I am a native speaker of Latgalian, I grow up in my family using spoken and written Latgalian. I am an active member of Latgalian Wikipedia and can represent the community. Stiernīts 18:01, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

Korean Hanja Wikipedia

Please read this. I want your answer about Korean Hanja Wikipedia. --Masoris 18:20, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

Proposals for closing projects

Hi GerardM,

on WM:PCP, requests to shut down inactive projects keep piling up to the ceiling. While I have to date processed four of those requests (kr.wp, cho.wp, ang.source, ndl.quote) I feel highly uncomfortable with the situation. I have absolutely no authority to manage closure requests. I just started doing it, because no-one else did. A while ago you put a draft for a closure policy at Closure of WMF projects, which, unfortunately has gone largely unnoticed. Do you have any ideas what to do to ensure at least a smooth processing of uncontroversial request? I.e. of requests to close projects which are completely or almost empty?

BTW: I have asked the devs to move the contents of the now frozen Choctaw Wikipedia to the incubator, as you suggested. But I wonder what is going to happen with all those frozen subdomains, like kr:, cho: etc. Should they just stay there indefinitely? If so, a project technically never gets closed. It will always appear in the database as an existing project, thus causing confusion. Therefore, the actual deletion of those projects would be the cleaner solution. What do you think? --Johannes Rohr 08:34, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

AeresWikipediaGaatTochDoor!

Je mag er meschien wel plezier aan hebben gehad maar aeres.wikia.com wordt het nieuwe station voor de wikipedia! Gelukkig voor mij hoef ik dan niet die hele interface te vertalen. AERES IS EEN TAAL! Helaas voor mij was er niemand die het ooit interressant gevonden heeft... -Markvondeegel 20:18, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Latgalian wiki

Hy, so, what the situation of Latgalian wikipedia creation. Why this police is killing enthusiasts? I know that 120000 is not so much as netherlands are but why they cann't have real enciclopedia? Samogitians there are 3 times more, but situation is the same. Untill there wasn't real wikipedia - nobody new that. If the pirson No.1 will be lost (who has relationships with Latgalian language enthusiasts) there will be lost one beautiful language in wiki project :( 193.219.135.225 09:51, 30 August 2007 (UTC) (Zordsdavini)

The problem is that Latgalian has not been recognised as a language, this recognition is possible to get. It has little to do with the number of speakers, 120.000 is a sizeable number. GerardM 10:02, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Dear, GerardM. Would you wait 2 years for creation your mother language wiki? Latgalian is in same boat as Bavarian, Provonsal, Cashubian. Samogitians are less language than Latgalian because grammer is not finished. Bur allready have some articles in press of Lithuanian Republic ([5]). To get status is very hard because in these countries (Latvia, Lithuania) it will (is) look as separatism creation. Samogitians were biggests Lithuanian Republic patriots and if you say I'm Samogitian - hey will screem on you "separatist, you want divide small Lithuania". The same is Latvia (a little bit better). This official mark - ISO 693 can summon up some bad things and better if this mark will be get through government (why I stopped). 193.219.135.225 10:22, 30 August 2007 (UTC) (Zordsdavini)

You said that this recognition is possible to get. Are latgalians do some movement? It's interesting and for the Samogitian situation. Is it only though ISO this doing? Sorry, for my negatiwe position at police. You are not guilt, we all are. Zordsdavini 08:23, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Sardinian

Hi and thanks for your support! :) About the "naturalness" of LSC you can read this Limba sarda comuna: una lingua realmente esistente (the paper is here); imho it's very interesting. Have a nice we, --Felisopus Talk to me 16:41, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

Korean Hanja Wikipedia

I'm waiting Language Subcommittee's answering about Korean Hanja Wikipedia. Please reply it! --Masoris 23:26, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

When can I get respond about this Wikipedia? Because it passed about 1 month after I demanded on project discussion page. --Masoris 13:53, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

Diaza

Please answer to my question at Talk:Special projects subcommittees/Languages. Thank you very much.

I cannot understand you when is greek wikiversity going to open if you don't know who knows.

Armenian Wikisource

Hi, could you please take a look at my question about the request for Armenian Wikisource. Thanks. ― Teak 13:57, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

Tachelhit wikipedia

hello Dear GerardM i want you to take a look [here http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_new_languages/Wikipedia_Tachelhit] and show us the way to creat a wikipedia on tachelhit

thank you very much .(:)--Zanatos11 21:04, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

I have asked Brion to create a language file in the Incubator. You will be able to do the localisation either there or in BetaWiki. Thanks, GerardM 21:52, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Bicol Interface Translation Completed at BetaWiki

Hi GerardM,

1465 messages have been translated out of a total of 1792.

This means that only 327 are not yet translated.

However, 330+ of those messages do not need translation before final approval,

For example, none of these messages below are required at all before final approval:

• common* (2)
• edittools
• exif-* (273)
• export* (7)
• feed* (2)
• import* (27)
• lock* (8)
• mainpagedocfooter
• mainpagetext
• metadata* (6)
• monobook* (2)
• pagetitle
• unlock* (6)

Therefore 0 messages remain to be translated.

When can bcl.wikipedia.org be created?

Regards, --Jose77 20:20, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Erzya Wikipedia

Hi. You switched an Erzya wikipedia proposal to "conditionally approved". Now in incubator there is some activity, 68 pages were created. Maybe now it is time for the final approval?
Speakers of Erzya noted, that current ISO 639-2 code myv for Erzya language is senseless. They prefer russian GOST 7.75–97 code erz. In ISO 639-2, the erz code is unset. Is it possible to create erz.wikipedia.org instead of myv.wikipedia.org? A.M.D.F. 18:56, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Hoi, we accept the ISO-639 codes. It is not negotionable :) it is the standard that we adhere to. GerardM 06:20, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Maybe fiu-erz? Like fiu-vro.wikipedia.org? A.M.D.F. 11:40, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Absolutely not. GerardM 15:03, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Greek Wikiversity

Could you please tell me what more we should do to open the greek wikiversity? If you don't know could you please tell me who knows? Thank you very much.--85.75.69.206 12:31, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Translation Limburgish Interface

Hey, everything is translated execpt those viewed at the talk page of requests for new languages/Wikiquote Limburgish and those who are equal to the fallback language Dutch. We await final aprove and creation. --OosWesThoesBes 15:11, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

min Article count

Hallo GerardM, I know you're member of the LangCom so I was wondering. How many pages are needed to call a test successfull? Not looking at other factors, like number of interested users and number of native users. SF-Language 16:54, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

We have explicitly not defined a minimum number of articles. What we are looking for are a series of well written articles that do justice to the language. We prefer it when they are on many different topics. What we are looking for is that we get a good feeling of what is presented. We are likely to ask someone external to the WMF to say something about the quality of the language used and particularly if it is the language that we expect it is. GerardM 17:38, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Volapük Wikipedia

Beste Gerard,

ik heb je commentaar op de discussie over het voorstel om Volapük.Wikipedia te sluiten gelezen. Het lijkt alsof je tegen dit voorstel bent. Misschien wil je dus ook stemmen? Hoe meer hoe beter... --Smeira 02:17, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Ik stem niet omdat deze stemming imho niet legitiem is. Je kunt niet omdat je dat zo vindt een project waar je het niet mee eens bent om zeep helpen. Sterker nog, als men "dreigt" om een "besluit" tot sluiting uit te voeren, dan stuur ik aan op een beroep bij de board. GerardM 05:32, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Echt waar? Wat zouden de consequenties van zo'n beroep kunnen zijn? Ik wil je natuurlijk niet in een gevaarlijke situatie plaatsen. Ik denk dat de stemming slecht is -- d.w.z. gebaseerd op vooroordelen: te veel interwiki's zijn een probleem, heel kleine talen kunnen geen encyclopedie aan, bot-artikelen zijn uit den boze, enz. Maar er zijn veel mensen die schijnbaar geloven dat deze redenen serieus zijn, en ik heb discussies elders gevonden waar mensen dezelfde soorten argumenten hanteren (encyclopedien moeten in ´stabiele´ talen met genoeg sprekers worden geschreven, ´echte´ projecten hebben 5, 10, 20... deelnemers nodig om een kans op een echte toekomstige encyclopedie te kunnen hebben, enz.). Ik weet dus niet of het voorstel zo duidelijk als niet legitiem verklaard kan worden. Is het misschien niet beter om toch te proberen mensen te vinden die tegen het voorstel zouden willen stemmen? --Smeira 02:25, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Ik zal er op aan sturen dat het de "language committee" van de WMF is die bezwaar maakt. GerardM 06:52, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

OK... ik hoop dat dit niet nodig zal zijn. (Maar ik zie dat er nu meer ondersteuners dan tegenstanders komen naar de discussiepagina van het voorstel. Mijn indruk is dat anti-interwiki's en anti-bots uit de.wiki nu blijven komen - er zijn vermoeddelijk veel mensen daar die zo denken. Als ze talrijk genoeg zijn...) Bedankt voor je mening en belangstelling! Ik hoop dat dit genoeg zal zijn om vo.wiki open te houden. --Smeira 16:08, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Ottoman Test Wikipedia

I dont know English very well. So I dont explain everthing well Ottoman Test Wikipedia started 14 months ago. There are o lot of articles in Ottoman test Wikipedia (1300 over). We worked a lot of time in Ottoman Test Wikipedia for 14 months. But this page cahanged 9 days ago [6] why did you say these one years ago ? This is unfairness, wrong, injustice I am a history teacher in Istanbul. User Bèrto 'd Sèra's idea is not true about of Ottoman Turkish Wikipedia in this page [7] every History teacher and every literature teacher know ottoman language. Because they learn ottoman language in Univercity and there are alot of course a bout of Ottoman language for public. Every people can buy ottoman language books from internet [8]

--Tarih 08:13, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

Hoi, what I am looking for is some proof that the Ottoman Turkish language is actively written today. With this information I can ask the label of "historic" to be removed from the definition. Historic means that nobody is using it actively. GerardM 08:24, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

Conditional approval request for Ottoman Wikipedia

Hi GerardM, As you are a member of Language Subcommittee, you may know that currently there is a discussion in process for the approval of Ottoman Turkish Wikipedia. As a one of the requesters for approval of this project, I have left some comments in Special_projects_subcommittees/Languages page. Also have placed some information on Educational activities on Ottoman Language that you may like to browse.
Thanks in advance for your attention on this subject --Mehrdad 17:16, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

Status of Ottoman Turkish in Education

Hi GerardM, To assist with your assessment of the education activity for Ottoman Turkish, my Turkish Wikipedian friend Tarih, have helped me to compile a page as Statistics on Ottoman Turkish Education using available official statistics based on matrix provided byHigher Education Board of Turkey (Tablo 4) on its official website. Using this source we could extract the number of first year students who will be thought Ottoman Turkish Language during their courses. According to this tables, the total for the State Universities are 11870 students and private universities 1215 , which bring us to the Grand Total of 13085 students learning Ottoman Turkish (Osmanli). Considering these figures are just for the first year, it is safe to assume that at least twice this number being trained in this language. We hope this will help to clarify the status of this language as a prerequisite course for Turkish Literature, art and historical research. --Mehrdad 15:36, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

Breton wikiquote

Hello! The breton wikiquote (see the test project) is ready to be approved and become official. All the criterias are completed: we've got an ISO 639 code, the language is unique with more than 300.000 native speakers, the test project is very active, the MediaWiki interface is completely translated! Could you help us to have our project approved? Thank you very much in advance!Benoni 13:25, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

Kleine talen en hun Wikipedia's

Beste GerardM,
Tijdens de discussie over het voorstel om de Volapük Wikipedia te sluiten (niet goedgekeurd -- goed!) had ik tijd om na te denken over kleine talen en de soort Wikipedia's die ze kunnen hebben. Ik vraag me af of dit ook deel uitmaakt van het officiële beleid van WMF. Als lid van het Languages Committee, weet je of het waar is dat iedere Wikipedia-project ook hetzelfde doel nastreeft (of na moet streven) -- "to be a repository of all human knowledge" of iets dergelijks? Is er iets over dit onderwerp dat ik zou kunnen lezen, of een discussie waaraan ik deel zou kunnen nemen? Hoe meer ik erover nadenkt, hoe interessanter het onderwerp me lijkt -- omdat kleine talen niet in staat zijn om een "repository of all human knowledge" te produceren, en toch zijn hun wp-projecten zinvol (d.w.z. hebben andere doelen). --Smeira 03:59, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

The aim of all projects is the same. What is not the same is the extend to which they have succeeded. Wikipedias provide encyclopaedic knowledge, they aim to provide complete, NPOV encyclopaedic knowledge. The fact that that these aims are not completely fulfilled is acceptable because of it being a wiki. A Wiki allows for a project to be a work in progress.

When projects have a value that is in addition to what their purpose is, it is really nice. It is what we can be happy with and it is an accomplishment for that community. It is not what we set out to do. GerardM 14:51, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

I can see this as an overarching ideal: it would be nice to... But certainly there are lots of projects for which this isn't really a real possibility. If a language X gets a Wikipedia project started because it can show it has, say, 10 active contributors, 20-30 occasional contributors, and 100,000 speakers (potential readers), still it is quite understaffed -- these 10 active contributors among themselves certainly won't be able to cover the full breadth of human knowledge: they are simply too few to be really familiar with all areas of human knowledge that can be part of an encyclopedia. So, for them, the goal of becoming like en.wp is fully unattainable: their Wikipedia will never be like that. Yet this doesn't mean that their project is pointless. One must conclude that their goal cannot be to achieve an original, all-encompassing encyclopedia; they must a fortiori aim lower, don't you think? I can see two possibilities for them:

a. Restrict the project to the topics that these 10 people can cover well. That will result in a somewhat skewed Encyclopedia: any topics that fall outside of the "expertise zone" of these 10 contributors simply won't be there. (One variant is: restrict the project, or at least make it stronger, in local topics: the local culture, places, language, etc. -- i.e., an "ethnic" Wikipedia. So, even if the 10 contributors aren't fully familiar with all topics relevant to their culture, they could at least find out: living in the culture will make it relatively easy for them to get access to the necessary information. That is an intersting possibility.)

b. Translate. Get the 10 contributors to translate as much as they can from other Wikipedias, or from other public-domain online or paper sources. That's not very original, but at least more topics will be covered. In practice, most Wikipedias do a lot of translating; except maybe for the 2-5 biggest ones, I'd guess translation is a very significant part of what they do. The result will be more encyclopedic coverage -- at the cost of originality: the final result will in many ways look like a translation of other Wikipedias, with all concomittant problems (translations aren't perfect, some things become confusing or are misinterpreted, etc.).

In view of that, it feels to me that one should suggest:

c. Set a reasonable goal. Say, for instance, that the policy becomes: any project that does a good-quality article for every topic in the List of articles that every Wikipedia should have is declared to be a (level-1) success. It has already achieved its (level-1) goal. It is already a "good" Wikipedia. (What the following goals should be after that is an interesting question.) For the biggest Wikipedias, a lot more than this simple goal has obviously already been achieved; for the new (or even the old) 10-contributor projects, however, this goal would be something realistically achievable. (Another possible goal is the "ethnic" Wikipedia I mentioned above.)

What do you think? Is this relevant to the WMF? --Smeira 22:00, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

First of all, you cannot tell volunteers what to do. What you CAN tell them to do is do whatever in a particular framework. This means that when people want to translate, they can do so. When they only want to write about the premier football clubs and everything associated with it, they can do so. This does not make it "optimal", but it does make it "their" project.

People set their own goals. What others can do is ensuring that things fit into a certain framework. When you have money to spend, you can make people work in a particular way. This has its own potential problems with POV. What we can do is make sure that the infra structure is sound. We can help promote people to write in the language that matters to them. In the end, people do things for their own sweet reasons. GerardM 14:41, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

What you're saying is that there is stricto sensu no real goal for a Wikipedia project: it can be whatever the volunteer participants want it to be? So much of the criticism in the case of the Volapük Wikipedia seemed to be based on ideas about what an Encyclopedia ought to be: a repository of all human knowledge, etc., with the added argument that there are other wikis (at Wikia for instance) that can be used for other purposes. What you're saying suggests that this argument has no weight here, because voluntaries can set their goals in whatever way they like? So a Wikipedia in a given language might contain only articles about, say, characters in Tolkien's stories and nothing else, and, as long as vandalism is fought and the activity level is reasonable, nobody will find this bad and nothing will be done against it (no closure, etc.)? This is a bit surprising... So someone could, say, turn a Wikipedia project into a Wiktionary (just for the hell of it) and that would be OK? Another consequence would be, if I understand this correctly, that the kind of content can never be an argument for closing a project; only, say, no activity, or lots of vandalism/spam. Wow! if that's really so, then the degree of freedom is really amazing. Could you perhaps direct me to a document somewhere that states that clearly and more-or-less officially, say here at Meta?

Lozi

Het woord resolutie bestaat niet in het Lozi. Wat moet ik doen bij het vertalen van de interface? Overslaan en gewoon in het Engels laten of resolutie fonetisch schrijven? --OosWesThoesBes 14:59, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

I would do what people usually do. GerardM 15:39, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

Tachelhit wikipedia

Dear GerardM , i have a real problem, the problem is about the alphabet that will be used in the creation of Tachelhit wikipedia latin or w:en:Tifinagh one .

• the latin one is the easiest and it is supportable by the major of computers and it has been used by the taqbaylit wikipedia
• Tifinagh is a perfect alphabet of tachelhit and it is the original, but the problem is that many people can't see the caractres if they didn't install them.

question : is it possible to creat two wikipedias of tachelhit ? and i am ready to rewrite articles to Tifinagh alphabet

thank you very much.--Zanatos11 22:24, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

The correct choice would have been to standardise on one script. To localise in one script. With Multilingual MediaWiki it is possible to have two environments in the same database. Sadly MLMW is not ready yet. GerardM 05:35, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

than you very much --Zanatos11 18:42, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

Requests for new languages Middle Dutch

Hallo, mag ik vragen waarom je Requests for new languages/Wikisource Middle Dutch van Requests for new languages hebt weggehaalt? Ik ben bang dat niemand dan dit project op gaat vallen. --OosWesThoesBes 07:53, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Als een request anoniem is dan is er geen persoon die het vraagt. GerardM 10:56, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Ok. Ik was me vergeten in te loggen. --OosWesThoesBes 11:00, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

ISO 639-code Aeres

Zie dit gesprek. We zijn van plan voor een ISO 639-code te gaan. Ben je bereid dit dan te steunen? Vælke 14:46, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Ik heb andere dingen te doen dan het steunen van een kunsttaal. SignWriting bijvoorbeeld is imho meer relevant en er zijn echte voordelen aan verbonden. GerardM 18:42, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Saterfriese Wikipedia

Hallo GerardM,

Nadat de Saterfriese Wikipedia een jaar geleden is goedgekeurd door de gemeenschap is er helaas nooit een Wikipedia voor gemaakt, omdat de voorstelproces voor wikipedia's in nieuwe talen werd hervormd. Daarom heb ik een nieuw voorstel gedaan op Requests for new languages/Wikipedia Saterland Frisian. User:Pathoschild maakte op verzoek een inventarisatie van de test-wikipedia op incubator op incubator:User:Pathoschild/Status/wp-stq. Daar is te lezen dat de Saterfriese wikipedia alle "initial criteria" haalt, maar de drie "final criteria" nog niet. Sinds 19 november is er echter veel veranderd. Alle systeemberichten zijn op BetaWiki naar het Saterfries vertaald (behalve drie nieuwe berichten die vandaag aan BetaWiki zijn toegevoegd zie ik nu, maar die hebben ook niet eens een vertaling in het Duits). Daarnaast is de gemeenschap op Incubator actiever geworden. Naast Pyt en Kening Aldgilles, die al behoorlijk actief waren, zijn Ooswesthoesbes en ik nu ook regelmatig voor de Saterfriese wikipedia bezig (die nu al meer dan 500 artikelen kent!). Wij zijn van mening dat de Saterfriese wikipedia nu ook aan de eerste twee "final criteria" voldoet. We hebben Pathoschild al gevraagd om een update van zijn statuspagina, maar die heeft het blijkbaar op het moment te druk.

We zouden jou, als lid van het Language subcommittee willen vragen om de Saterfriese wikipedia "conditional approval" te geven, of anders te zeggen wat er nog precies aan de wikipedia/het voorstel schort.

Alvast bedankt,

Vriendelijke groeten, Maartenvdbent 12:42, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Hoi, ik heb "conditional approval" gegeven. Heb zelfs het artikel over deze taal in OmegaWiki uitgebreid. Op basis van het bestaan van deze taal is er geen probleem, gegeven de uitmuntende status van de localisatie heb ik zelfs zonder overleg de status gegeven. Wanneer de artikelen meer zijn als minimale stubs, dan verwacht ik dat het nu snel kan gaan. GerardM 14:36, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Heel erg bedankt! Maartenvdbent 18:01, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Dat is goed nieuws! En het zit wel goed met de meeste artikelen. Ik kijk of ik er eventueel nog een paar kan uitbreiden, bedankt! --OosWesThoesBes 07:23, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

Requests for new languages/Wikinews Hungarian

What are we waiting? Please write your answer on my talk page. Thx.

Requests for new languages/Wikinews Hungarian

--News 18:02, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Proposals for closing projects/Radical cleanup of Volapük Wikipedia

Can they do this, GerardM? I thought this question had already been settled; and this hardly seems to be the right place to discuss it, since it's not a closure proposal. --Smeira 12:44, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

Requests for new languages/Wikiversity Portuguese

This helps on something with the conditional approval? 555 20:53, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

The hungarian wikinews is ready to start the hu.wikinews.org

The hungarian wikinews is ready to start the hu.wikinews.org--News 12:00, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

Li Wikibooks

[9] Wat moet er nog gedaan worden? --OosWesThoesBes 13:02, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Wikibooks is een vervolg project voor de Limburgse taal. Op dit moment is slechts 76% van de belangrijkste boodschappen vertaald terwijl een volledige lokalisatie van MediaWiki en de extensies die door de WMF gebruikt wordt verwacht wordt. GerardM 15:02, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Azo. Dus moeten -exif, -import en -export ook gedaan worden? --OosWesThoesBes 17:52, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Moet ik die vertalen? --OosWesThoesBes 08:32, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Voorwaarde voor een vervolg project is dat de volledige MediaWiki localisatie gedaan is, inclusief de localisatie van de door de WMF gebruikte extensies. Je besluit zelf of je iets gaat doen. GerardM 09:53, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Die vertaal ik dan ook maar. Een deel is al vertaald, een klein beetje, zie ik. --OosWesThoesBes 09:55, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

als

Hello Gerard, you asked on Betawiki for change of the code als to gsw Betawiki:Betawiki:Translator#section-a58a6e4faec7f766a9cbaa026de1ddb6.

gsw is the wrong language code for the language now present under als. gsw is Swiss German, als is Alemannic. gsw is only a subset of Alemannic. The project now under als won't accept gsw as code, I guess. The scope is not the same. Brion may be the right one to ask on the technical side, but he has not the position to decide on changing the scope of a project. Get consent of the community for any change (you did ask on the project in 2006, but there was no discussion) or ask ISO to introduce a new code representing the actual language identity.

There was a discussion on als on the topic too als:Wikipedia:Stammtisch#.22als.22_steit_f.C3.BCr_Toskisch.

Posting this only, cause I was a bit puzzled, that you already asked Brion without the topic settled before. --::Slomox:: >< 16:43, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

You are wrong, als is Tosk. Using the code for anything else is not acceptable. It is not acceptable because the restrictions on using the ISO codes are that you are not permitted to invent your own. GerardM 19:08, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

It is correct, that als is the code for Tosk and you are right, that we should conform to the standard defined by ISO as much as possible. And you are right, that the Alemannic project should move to another code and make the code als free for Tosk. But you are not right, when you say, the project should move away from als asap no matter what this means to the project. Wikimedia is about the contents of the projects and the projects are more important than the ISO standard. If we have the choice harm the ISO standard or harm the project Wikimedias choice is obvious.

The scope of the project is the same as the first superdivision of gsw, Alemannic, which is divided by ISO in four subdivisions and codes. That's a matter of fact. As far as I know all speakers agree, that these four entities should form only one project. You can't neglect that. If you want to enforce ISO conformity in Wikimedia language codes, okay, then talk to the people active on the project and ask them, whether they can accept to move to the not perfectly fitting code gsw. If they agree, perfect! If they disagree, well, then you have to persuade ISO to add a new code for Alemannic. The fact that the users on als are willing to work together and are working together without problems should be evidence enough to prove there are no four different languages, but only variants of one language. That's the way to solve the code issue. You can't impose the code change on the community per developer ukas.

The project worked well under the code als for years and there were no prblems with the code. Tosk doesn't even need the code. So there is all the time needed to talk to the people.

I know for myself, that it can be very mind-boggling, if things are just and simply against the rules. But let us be a bit pragmatic. Crossing the street when the traffic lights are red is wrong. But if there is not a single car in sight? Is it really wrong to go then? Perhaps your ill child is waiting for you at home on the other side? You won't go, cause it is against the rules? I'm sure, you would go. Cause breaking the rule does no harm in that case. And Alemannic holding the wrong code for some more time does no harm to anybody too.

I'm optimistic (although I of course can't be certain) that the project could agree to a code change if you ask in a friendly way and provide a nice transition plan. My spontaneous proposal for such a transition plan: after having consent from the project move the project to the new code and keep the old one as a redirect for two years. After that, most users should have adapted to the new code. Then make 'als' kinda disambig page that says something like 'als' was formerly hosting the Alemannic project. This project now is hosted under 'gsw', cause 'als' is officially the language code for Tosk. If you are looking for the Tosk project, please visit 'sq'. After one more year the code als will be handed back fully.

If there are actual plans to create a Tosk dialect project besides the Tosk-Albanian standard project, the procedure could be sped up. But I doubt this will happen in the near future. --::Slomox:: >< 00:02, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

There is no way that a code will be given for what would be a macro language. In my understanding this is outside of the remit of ISO-639-3. Your analogy about children is wrong. When you cross a red lighted street, you give a bad example to kids who do not have the experience to know when to safely cross the street. Kids die that way.

Alemannic holding the als key is wrong, there was no excuse at the time for it and there is no excuse now. When some Albanians want to have a Tosk project, it will not make me happy, but given the policies they could have it. GerardM 06:50, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Okay, let's phrase it in another way: Imagine a kid (which has seen some such bad examples...) crossing a street when red light is on. You see the child and you see a car approaching with high speed. The child does not see the car and can't hear it, cause the child is deaf. But you realize there is enough time left, to run on the street and push it into safety. Do you rescue the child or do you say No, the lights are red. It's forbidden to walk onto the street. You see, all I want to say is: Rules ease our life, they are made to ease our lifes. That's their sole purpose. But if strictly applying a rule makes our lifes unnecessarily harder, than just don't apply the rule strictly.

'als' for Alemannic does not harm any childs and noone else, but taking away the code from the project could harm the Alemannic project.

If you say, ISO won't allow codes for languages, when there are already codes for subdivisions of that language, then I say: don't use ISO any longer. Only speakers can decide, whether their own languages form a unity with other variants and whether they wish to form a common project or not. It's ridiculous to say from outside Sorry, your codepoints don't match. As far as I know, it is possible to add new codes to ISO. If you add a new code, this language was in many cases covered by another code before. Does that mean, the project with that code has to be split? ISO codes are a big mess in that regard, they can't be the sole base for decisions. For example Westphalian has the code wep. Nobody would deny, that Westphalian is a subdivision of Low Saxon. But Low Saxon has the code nds. The entry on nds does state Westphaelian and Plautdietsch also have separate entries. Note the also. Westphalian is covered by both codes. Does that make nds a code for a "macro language"?

And even if you still want to base decisions solely on ISO codes: That does not debar you, to speak with the persons involved and to ask them, whether they want to switch to 'gsw'. --::Slomox:: >< 17:03, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

When you say "Nobody would deny, that Westphalian is a subdivision of Low Saxon." you are wrong because ISO does exactly that according to your own prose. When people insisted on choosing the als code they were wrong, they knew it and did it anyway. At that time there was no excuse, there still is no excuse. In the ISO-630-6 Alemannic as you understand it will get a code. GerardM 18:10, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Interface Limburgs

Alles is vertaald: http://translatewiki.net/w/?title=Special%3ATranslate&task=untranslated&group=core&language=li&limit=100 --OosWesThoesBes 09:50, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Prachtig.. nu de WMF extenties nog. GerardM 21:59, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Goed, ik heb er al 100 vertaald, maar i.v.m. school denk ik dat ik door de week niks kan doen, dus dat wordt het weekend. --OosWesThoesBes 05:42, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

The Hungarian wikinews is waiting from 24 November 2006

Maybe the time was enough. We have been waiting 1 year and 1 mounth !! Requests_for_new_languages/Wikinews_Hungarian

We are writing news articles every day. Just the hungarian wikinews hasn't been published so nobody can see our work, our news articles... Wn/hu What are we waiting for ??! --ZuzuPetas 21:25, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

FYI I asked two days ago of the language committee to comment on the hu.wikinews. I tend to agree with you. GerardM 21:56, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanx a lot. Where can I see the language committee's comments?--ZuzuPetas 16:01, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks your help to start the hu.wikipedia.org

Can we help to the developers creat Can we help to the developers creat hu.wikinews.org sooner than later? If yes, What can we do ? ---News 15:13, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

We have asked the board if they have objections. We will now in a week. GerardM 16:03, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

Can I help to the developers to creat hu.wikinews.org ?--ZuzuPetas 19:34, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

Get in touch with me on the 21th.. Thanks, GerardM 20:33, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

GerardM_ Do you know any new information about the process?--KossuthRad 17:16, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

New proposal?

Hi GerardM, you've probably already seen User:Yekrats/Proposal for limits of bot-usage. I gave some comments here: User talk:Yekrats. What do you think? Would it be a good idea to start this proposal/discussion? --Smeira 17:09, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Translating messages

Hoi. I want to translate the most often used messages to my native language (Erzgebirgisch), but it doesn't have an ISO-639-3 code, unfortunately. (Ignorant SIL! ;O) ) What abbreviation would you propose? "de-erz" maybe? (No, I don't want to start a new project, just translate the interface a little bit so that I can set it in my preferences.) Best regards, --Thogo (talk) 08:52, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

Tach. I just happened to see this by accidente. We are in a sutation simulair, wanting to translate some messages to Krieewelsch Platt used in the KrefeldWiki. Their admin Poruda said lokaly use QKR or QKP for it, and will help us. But public used shall be gem-qkr or gem-qkp, if possible at all. Alos we must be askeinged for ISO-code proper, but that takes 1 year or two yeares to get. 89.247.102.86 18:47, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

Hoi, It does not take two years to get a code. I would think it is less then half a year from the moment a well presented proposal goes in. 20:31, 11 January 2008 (UTC) PS Say hi to Puroda from me :)

Where can others download your bot?

In 2005, you've written the use of a bot by moderators in which you suggested a bot that reverts everything a particular user has done and deletes every page that user has added. According to your talk page, you obviously use a bot, so if it's this bot, why don't you share it and help reduce vandals in all wikis out there? -79.182.0.62 13:01, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

My bot does not run with the admin bit. Also Vandalfighter (software) is what you should look into. GerardM 13:07, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

Do you mean you just revert instead of using rollback? Do you use Vandalfighter instead of a plain bot? -79.182.0.62 15:03, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

If I spend time on vandalfighting, I would use vandalfighter :) GerardM 23:18, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

LFN

Hi, Gerard.

I'm George Boeree, the guy behind lingua franca nova. You said to get in contact with you when lfn gets a SIL designation. Well, it has: lfn. I see that we moved to the next step in getting our own official wikipedia, and that we need to convert the interface (which I think you noticed is partially done on our independent wiki). Stefan Fisahn is our wiki expert, but he would like to move on to other projects, so I will probably have to handle our transition for the most part, despite the fact that I am no expert. Your help would be appreciated. George Boeree 23:01, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

When you contact the people of BetaWiki (irc irc://irc.freenode.net/mediawiki-i18n ) you will get help getting the user interface into BetaWiki and consequently in MediaWiki proper. When this is done, you can have a look at what more you can do for the localisation.

Can you give us the address of your wiki so that we can have a look ? Thanks, GerardM :)

The address is: http://lfn.esef.net/index.php/Paje_Prima - George

Surinaams

Alle 500-belangrijkste berichten zijn vertaald. De test is actief. Wanneer wordt de wikipedia gemaakt? Grutu, Jordi (mi taki) 16:29, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

Hoi, Jordi, gefeliciteerd met de localisatie van de eerste boodschappen. Knap werk. Waar de language commission naar kijkt is de localisatie, de activiteit maar ook naar de kwaliteit van de artikelen. De indruk bestaat dat de artikelen aan de magere kant zijn. Het project is nog maar recent aangevraagd en we willen graag zien dat meerdere mensen aan het project meewerken. Dit vooral om te voorkomen dat wanneer jij het voor gezien houdt, het project op zijn kont valt. Vraag eind februari nog eens .. :) Groetjes, GerardM 20:00, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

Mmm... (instemmend over het te kort zijn van de artikels) Het is duidelijk dat er 5 klassen zijn:

1. Lijkt groot, maar is voornamelijk een lijstje met wat foto's: [10]
2. Zo kort dat je je erover moet schamen: [11], [12]
3. Informatieloos: [13]
4. Gemiddeld (aan de kleine kant): [14], [15], [16]
5. Zeer goed: [17] (de enige van deze soort die ik kon vinden)

Wat mij lijkt is dat er voornamelijk goede artikelen komen als er meerdere mensen omstebeurt aan één artikel werken. (bv Pakukima. Mocht je niet genoeg over een onderwerp weten kun je altijd ctrl+a - ctrl+c - ctrl+v (vanuit een andere Wikipedia, inclusief bronvermelding) toepassen. (Probeer dit zo weinig mogelijk te doen, maar het is een tip) --OosWesThoesBes 06:23, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

Ik zal je eind (of midden :-)) februari nog wel eens vragen. Met betrekking tot de te kleine artikels: veel daarvan zijn verduidelijkingspagina's ([18]) Ik ben het ermee eens dat artikels over bv. Wikipedia en Paramribo en Suriname aan de erg korte kant zijn. Ik zal het meteen doorgeven via de centrale overlegruimte. Grutu, Jordi (mi taki) 15:08, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

haitian creole wiktionary, request incubator

Hi,

i'm admin from haitian creole wikipedia and wikisource. The WMF most-used section in Haitian creole has been entirely translated (mostused)

Request page : http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_new_languages/Wiktionary_Haitian_Creole

thank you for your attention --Masterches 14:32, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

"Get in touch with me on the 21th"

Hi! I'm here. So? What can I do for the Hungarian wikinews?--ZuzuPetas 17:23, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

Localization of Caspian languages

Thank you dear Gerard, You are so kindness! I translated the php file, honestly translating whole of those messages although not more than 200 msg, opening & closing of them by a dial-up connection is really hard, So the PHP version of it is available, perhaps must be uploaded in buzilla, Huh? How about having more than one writing system in our wikis ?

Village pump is available now!, However i'm not sure what to calling it ... i called it as KUMA in Mazanderani (Not KUMA as PUMA ;), But KUMA as KUME), inform me in my talk page (PHP file & EU MZN) --Ali 20:54, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

Hoi, in BetaWiki we have .po files. This allows you to do your work off line. :) Thanks, GerardM 23:40, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

Thank you, I'll use it! --Ali 01:58, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Move on

Stop implying that I am a harrasment for brave Wikipedians. I will proceed (I'm not going to follow your demand) but I won't try to convince you cause we simply have fundamental different views (you can't change a persons mind over the internet). Arnomane 00:42, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

There have been two attempts at the vo.wikipedia in short succession. Both were defeated. How else would you call it ? GerardM 07:34, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

Which two? I know only one. Arnomane 10:59, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

First there was the attempt to close the vo.wikipedia, then there was the attempt to mass delete content. GerardM 12:18, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

You mean the "mass delete attempt" was my proposal? I don't see how my proposal was defeated cause I myself discontinued it as I do have a sense for constructiveness. Arnomane 13:20, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

This proposal did not get sufficient traction. It was ill conceived and poorly executed. You should leave the vo.wikipedians some breathing space so that they can do the work that you want them to do; improve their content. Continuing your campaign will not benefit anyone. How can it lead to a result that is seen as positive by all ? GerardM 14:16, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

ca.wikt

Hello, GerardM,

I have protected your discussion page at catalan wiktionary against IP's because of the continuated anonymous vandalism: wikt:ca:Usuari Discussió:RobotGMwikt. Feel free to comment anything you want. Salutacions! -Aleator (talk) 20:24, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Maithili script

Can you provide me with information that helps clearly distinguish the differences between the Bengali and the Maithili SCRIPT. I was asked this question by Anshuman Pandey who has a pending request for the inclusion of Maithili in Unicode. Thanks, GerardM 22:23, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks.The main charecteristics that distinguish between the Bengali and Maithili script are as follows:

1. There is tendency towards triangular in Bengali script however in Maithili script the tendency is towards going round in vyanjana varnas.The median is Devanagari.:e.g.gha,cha,chh,tha,dha,na.
2. There is tendency towards triangular in Maithili script however in Bengali script the tendency is towards going round in Swara varnasa,e.g.,a,aa,o,au.
3. There is tendency towards union on edges in Bengali script, but in Mithilakshara the union happens in middle,e.g.na,Na.
4. The fifth alphabet of ka,cha,ta,ta vargas show total difference.
5. The fourth alphabets of ka,cha vargas show total difference.
6. The ra of Bengali script is va of Maithili script and vice versa.
7. The la,Na,na,sha,,ha,ksha,,Ng,chh,jha,Ta,Tha,Da,Dha are also different.
8. 21 out of 47 (around 45%)characters of Maithili script are totally different from those of Bengali script(G.Jha,1974)
9. The sign of avagraha(akin to roman s in look only),ankush of ganeshji( written in 4-5 ways but that used by sh.Ansuman Pandey is the most used and standardized),Aum sign and Gwang(two smaall circle connected by u and a dot placed over it,used in reference of vedic texts)and guru sign in chhanda,the same sign in sense of anudatta swara also( a small horizontal dash over the alphabet),a deergh-udatta- pronunciation(a smaal vertical dash over the alphabet used in combination of aan alphabet and shift 3 in Baraha IME),and a laghu(a small U over the alphabet) are the others that are used in context of Maithili script more frequently than in Bengali script.
10. Two small vertical dash over the alphabet-swarit swar-repeat pronunciation of last swaras in loud voice,a small horizontal dash below the alphabet is used for komal swaras and Jihwamooliya( circle cut from half and half-rotated in opposite directions)are the others that are used in context of Maithili script more frequently than in Bengali script.

gajendra thakur

• Hi Gajendra, thank you for providing the above information. Do you have examples of Maithili text that show the 'gvang' sign, the vedic tone markers, and other symbols? Anshuman Pandey

• I am finding problem in constructing http://translatewiki.net/wiki/MediaWiki:Mainpage/mai as what i constructed was deleted perhaps by any administrator.Which messages/recent messages iwill have to translate on the above link.what is meant by the parser etc message.Gajendra Thakur

Requests for new languages/Wikiversity Portuguese

I want to know, what is missing to the project be approved? Luckas13 20:45, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

At this moment a functioning tool server so that we can do some automated analysis. GerardM 22:05, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

12865 Create Hungarian Wikinews

Thanks for your steps! https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12865 --Tompos Roland 18:01, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

when will be the start? --WeeeW 12:19, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

When a developer takes the time to start the wiki. It is not in my hands. GerardM 15:13, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Can you write me some User, and than I can send a letter to them. THX.--Muhata 17:37, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

re: Babel templates

Hoi, please leave my user as it is. I do not want you to change my layout at all. I have problems with the English language text in my babel templates. GerardM 22:36, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

Hello GerardM. As you can see along the right, there is no English text in the language templates. —{admin} Pathoschild 22:38:43, 09 February 2008 (UTC)

Hello, please don't restore deprecated templates. You can use {{babelold}}, which are the old-format babel templates, or simply substitute the old template code on your page. However, the individual language templates have been deprecated after community discussion. —{admin} Pathoschild 22:27:12, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

You are fucking with my userpage. {admin} GerardM 22:50, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

You are disrupting templates and community consensus so your user page can be just the way you like it. You can do that without disruption by substituting the code; I've done that for you, so you don't have to do anything else to keep your user page just the way you like it. —{admin} Pathoschild 23:00:44, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

I have not noticed that there is a consensus. {admin} GerardM 23:05, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

See Meta:Babel. There is general consensus for the new templates, and ongoing discussion about specifics like the colour scheme. —{admin} Pathoschild 23:09:29, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

There has been stiff opposition to several aspects of it. There is still no consensus on the levels that are employed. This whole change is proposed and at the same time implemented. This seems to be a pattern. I am interested in your definition of consensus.. It seems you use the Thai meaning of the word. GerardM 23:25, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

The levels that are employed are those that have always been employed. Custom levels (0.5, 2.5, 4, 5, 6, 7, et cetera) were not added to the template simply because they were not the standard levels used. If there is a consensus to add them, this can easily be done. This is not an objection to the template itself, it is a demand that we conform both systems to your liking. If the levels are as useful as you say, I'm sure you will easily obtain consensus to add them on Meta:Babel.

The system is no longer proposed. It was proposed two weeks ago, and it is now being implemented. The current discussion is not about whether the system should be implemented, but about tweaking it to everyone's content. —{admin} Pathoschild 23:34:40, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

Re: Requests for new languages

The only projects I remind me to have requested were Limburgish (my native language) Middle Dutch (a language which I quite good understand) Lozi (I speak this language too) and Mentawai. I speak many language and if I should put them all on babel it would be very, very ugly. The other projects I've only edited and not proposed: Sranantongo (a few mistakes sometimes [19]) Slovak (I speak some basics) and so on. I'm not Max Sonnelid who just proposes projects without thinking of the future and without speaking even one word. I do speak basic Mentawai, and for the Mentawai words I don't know there's a dictionary :) --OosWesThoesBes 06:20, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Dead project

Hoi. I consider this project completely dead. :o/ Shall I make a closing request on the appropriate page or is it enough to notify you? :o) Best regards, --Thogo (talk) 11:48, 15 February 2008 (UTC) p.s. Please answer on my talk page, otherwise I forget about it probably... o.O

Sranan Tongo

[20] Wij blijven werken aan onze te kleine artikels. Zoals je zei was het beter te wachten tot half/eind febrauri. Het is nu 15 februari (dus half, net iets meer :-) Wij zijn er actiever op geworden, dus bedankt voor de goede raad om nog een maandje te wachten. Wat is nu je mening over een Sranan Tongo Wikipedia? Verder is deze lijst niet al te onbelangrijk. Dat zijn grotere (niet de grootste) artikels van de Sranan Tongo Wikipedia. Grutu, Jordi (mi taki) 16:36, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Name of Sindhi language in 3 scripts

May I know why does the name of Sindhi Language in LOCAL SCRIPT appears in 3 scripts on page www.wiktionary.org/ ?

You had said DONE for two scripts, i.e. Sindhi Arabic (سنڌي) and Sindhi Devnagri (सिन्धी). But now you have added the third foreign script (سندھی). Kindly remove that.

Aursani 14:54, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Hungarian wikinews

Do you have any information about the hungarian wikinews's start?--ZOooll 10:58, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

Sorry no. GerardM 14:02, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

The hungarian wikinews will start at 2009 or 2010?

It is possible to publish the wikinews in 2008, or itt will start at 2009?--Steady 09:57, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

If it were up to me, it would already be life.. you need a friendly developer. Thanks GerardM 10:18, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

hi

hi GerardM, are you ok? we have many peuple in caspien language, but because that they dont writing in there language thy cant work in wikipedia. but some peple can wright gilaki but dont want work in encyclopedia like this weblogs that wright gilaki: http://mi-gab.blogsky.com/ ; http://cassiy.blogfa.com/ ; http://gilaki.persianblog.ir/ ; http://latre.blogfa.com/

and in many weblogs we have gilaki writing for mother language day: سرکشم// رادوار (ساسان ورتوان) * ديار کتاب * نرگس ماشل * جانˇ لاکو// ماسک (بابک فارسی) * بومأن... ويريسيد!// کلاچای-لطره * برگی از تاريخ گيلان * چند شعر گيلکی از شاعران شرق گيلان// گيلان زيبا * گيلکی واسی، امی زبؤنˇ مادری// پيک املش (وحيد ميرزايی) * درباره‌ی افراشته// روزانه‌ها (آراد يل‌بيگی) * گيلکی شئر// دايره‌ی مينا (احمد زاهدی لنگرودی) * امی مادری زبانˇ روز موبارک ببون.// علی يوسفی * به عشقˇ امی گيلان// کافه چوکوش * گيل‌ماز * توت فرنگی های نه چندان وحشی – سانس آخر * یاهو 360 – سارا * میزند باران به شیشه – علی عبداللهی * ایمان امروز – سید ایمان ضیابری * عصیان – نیما اکبرپور * ناجی شرق * می لاجان * پاکی وارث * می گب

--AminSanaei 14:25, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Hoi Amin, I am well. :) As I really want to stimulate languages like Gilaki and as we have learned how important localisation is, we hope to do best to have an initial requirement that is not too hard so that when localisation is a continuous process it will not be hard to have a later project as well. Thanks, GerardM 14:47, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

i try to translate; in Gilan we have "nowruj". and is our holyday; this time is enugh.--AminSanaei 13:55, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

hoy GerardM, i start translating in this address: http://glk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%88%DB%8C%DA%98%D9%87:AllMessages ; dont problem?--AminSanaei 07:05, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Yes that is a problem. When you translate there, all your work will not become available at the Incubator, at Commons and it does not get considered for the requests for new projects that have been made for the Gilaki language. When you localise here at betawiki, your work will become available at all MediaWiki wikis within a few days. This is much more effective and it also counts for the requirements of the new projects. Thanks, GerardM 08:47, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

but i only can speak Gilaki language and Farsi language; my speak english is not good. what can i do for translating from Farsi to Gilaki language?.--AminSanaei 14:03, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

fa.wiktionary

hi gerard ! it seems that you have sysop access there !please remove your access.thanks.--Mardetanha 15:28, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

thanks for you great efforts on fawiktionary ! best wishesh --Mardetanha 17:27, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

First off, I do not abuse power and as you may have noticed I have not either. Typically a community takes away authority .. I do not really care. Come have a look at OmegaWiki, create a user with Babel templates and watch how quickly you can become an admin :) GerardM 21:15, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

oh dear gerard i didn't mean you abuse your power ! and i am so thankfull for you great efort ! and you are alway wellcome to fawikt ! and again thanks ! --Mardetanha 06:35, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Санта Клаус

I would appreciate an explanation for your revert. Санта Клаус 14:30, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Quite simple, you are playing the man not the ball. If you have something to say be specific and do not contaminate pages that are about the implementation of policies with vague accusations. GerardM 14:49, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Accusations are accusations until proven. I guess it's never too late to correct GFDL issues. Would you like someone who violates GFDL to run a wiki? Allow the discussion if you would like to know more. And assume good faith, even when someone asks you to remove your access - that doesn't mean you are abusing your rights. Санта Клаус 15:07, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

As long as you keep personal attacks out of the pages discussing new projects I am fine. I am not interested in GFDL violations elsewhere. This is not a battleground for problems elsewhere. GerardM 19:57, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Personal attacks? I suggest you read a bit. Interestingly only you seem to see it this way - not even Ghaly takes it personally. Is this also pa? Санта Клаус 10:35, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Asking for help

I have noticed that you are following my proposal , therefore I would like to ask for your advice and help regarding the development of my project so it will be compliant with the policies, at the moment I am trying to translate some of the articles from the wiki Arabic and wiki English to my project, but I am finding it difficult to start a presentable front page and at the same time I like all my edits to be compliant with the policies, many thanks.--Ghaly 15:52, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

ops

Oh, I'm sorry!--Nick1915 - ^{all you want} 14:53, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia Masri

Wikipedia Egyptian Arabic is not going to be wikipedia simple Arabic and I have never intended that , I used the example for demonstration purposes only, I recognise Egyptian Arabic as a language as many other people do , I have no intention to start a simlpe Arabic wikipedia as I think the Arabic wikipedia is developing really well and I edit on it a lot , I have started more than 300 articles myself there.

To clarify what I am suggesting I started a page on How to write on wikipedia masri and for anyone who can read Egyptian Arabic it gives some guidelines on how to write.--Ghaly 20:49, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Cool :) GerardM 21:31, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

about Requests for new languages

I prefer return to the origin of the table. I make modification without discussion. I'm sorry for this conflit. I amends the tables in order to simply separate the various projects but I did not know that it could change to a greater extent the monitoring work. As has been said since the columns can be sorted out by themselves, therefore, it does nothing to make table by various projects. So I came back to the original presentation. Thanks for your messages and sorry to have created a conflict. Crochet.david 08:23, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

I am doing most of the work on this page. I find it much easier to work because it gives a much clearer view. The requirements of the different projects are such that it helps to see them together. Having the default order alphabetically helps as well. Thanks, GerardM 08:47, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

Non-subcommittee edits to status pages

Hello Gerard. On M.M.S.'s talk page, you wrote:

The members of the language committee maintain the status pages for requests for projects. In this way we KNOW that something is correct without a need to check again.

I verify all non-subcommittee edits to the status pages, so you don't need to worry about inaccuracies added by non-subcommittee users. I think it saves us work if users update the status pages when they notice something is out-of-date, since we only need to confirm the update rather than search for outdated pages. —{admin} Pathoschild 09:34:12, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

I do that as well. The point of the test is that it is an arbitrary moment when we check for things.. The important part of localisation is not reaching that desired state on its own, it is also maintaining the localisation. When you or I check things out, it is an arbitrary moment. Thanks, GerardM 10:02, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Hindi Wikinews

Hi GerardM, I am working to get an approval for Hindi Wikinews. I am not aware of what this criteria means develop an active test project; it must remain active until approval, and how I can work on it? Will you please guide me on this? Thanks, Shyam ^(T/C) 08:30, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Unanswered question

Hi Gerard, I wrote one week ago to the langcom (here) asking about the current status of my request, but I didn't get any answer... I'm starting to think that my message wasn't noticed at all... Can you answer my question, or at least ask somebody else to do it? thanks. Candalua 12:35, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

Betawiki

Hi GerardM, is [[21]] a new wiki? Mikhailov Kusserow 14:14, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

Betawiki or translatewiki.net is where we do the localisation for MediaWiki. It is running now for something like two years.. so it is not new. It is also the place where we verify if the compulsory localisation required when new projects are requested is done. GerardM 23:03, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

Sorry

It was a big error.But,answer me a question:Can I enter in the Language Subcomitee? I asked for other two participants and they don't answer me. Tosão 22:23, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

we have a working committee, and in principle with enough people to get the work done.. so the question is what is the benefit to expand the committee.. I do not have a clue WHY you want to be part of our august body... Thanks, GerardM 05:14, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

Drents

You do support this? Not very consistent with your special opinion about Westphalian... Drents has an ISO code and actually the Drents test project has more valid content than the Westphalian one. --::Slomox:: >< 11:11, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

The difference is that nds-nl is inclusive of Drents. The nds-nl wiki is imho an unsatisfactory result of the issues that existed between the Dutch and the German nds factions. Given that no such issues exist with regard to Westphalian, I am not convinced that you have a point. GerardM 12:15, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

nds accepts Westphalian contributions and is inclusive in this regard. It's a fact, that there nevertheless is few content in Westphalian on nds. But the reason of this is not, that we don't want Westphalian content, but that language normalization and standardization in Germany has made Westphalian a very, very weak dialect with few speakers left. Until now, nobody from Westphalia was interested in contributing to Wikipedia in Westphalian over a longer period of time. Articles in Westphalian are few, but we have some and we accept them. The existence of nds-nl and nds(-de) wikis is not satisfactory to me too, but it at least is the least unsatisfactory approach. In the existing spellings the two superstrate subdivisions of Low Saxon are not mutually understandable and we cannot create a common encyclopedia. We could of course create a new way of spelling and create a task force for sweeping out Dutchisms and Germanisms and replace it with Saxonisms. That would make the two variants mutually understandable. Well, mutually understandable to people able to read that common spelling. Excluding 99.99% of all speakers, who are only accustomed to the German/Dutch-based spellings.

But I wonder, if you esteem the split nds-nl/nds(-de) to be so unsatisfactory, why are you so eager to further split the language?

I really would appreciate, if you would present the exact reasoning of your decision on the proposal page, and please be detailed. --::Slomox:: >< 13:10, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Sory

I am admin at Lithuanian Wiktionary. At 15 May 2008 I made request in meta that wikt:lt:User:RobotGMwikt get a bot flag on the Lithuanian Wiktionary, but till now this bot status is not made. Bot was very active and yesterday in evening I needed block this bot. --Vpovilaitis ^apt. 06:45, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

be-x-old

Hello GerardM,
could you have a look on MediaZilla:9823? --- Best regards, Melancholie 01:26, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Oh, and MediaZilla:8540! --- Greetings, Melancholie 01:40, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

These are two issues not one. First of all, the code be-x-old is legitimate. We selected this code as much as anything to protest against this **** attitude of some language extremists to deny the official orthography of Belarus. I personally have no good thing to say about the existence of this wiki. I find it an abomination.

The nds situation is also controversial in its own right. It was nds speakers from Germany insisting on a specific orthography that led to the split into two. This solution has come to haunt us as a perfectly reasonable request for Drents is denied because it is considered part of the Low Saxon language group. When you consider nds on Ethnologue, you will find that it only exists in Germany anyway. Adding insult to injury, the nds people want us to deny Westfalian because they consider it part of nds as well.. GerardM 06:30, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

In your world the ISO codes maybe make perfect sense. Not so in real life. They are a higgledy-piggledy set of obstruse codes representing the reality poorly. They can still be used in a meaningful way, but you have to view them cum granum salis. They are in no way appropriate to decide on the fate of projects or to detect the status of an language variety (whether it is an language of its own or not).

Do you know Hindi and Urdu, GerardM? Its one language, did you know that? The daily (oral) language of its speakers is much less distinct than the two literary standards. The literary standards are based on language as used by Hindus and by Muslims. The main argument against the creation of nds-nl was, that Wikipedia is not political and splitting along the political border wouldn't be okay. Okay so. Wikipedia is not religious, so Hindu and Urdu Wikipedia are not okay too, are they?

Yes, the creation of nds-nl was triggered by a move to overcome dialectal and regional differences in spelling on nds. Differences that couldn't be overcome by some variants of the language. Since 2005, when this happened, I learned much, much more about all the varieties of Low Saxon and when I look back I sometimes ask myself, whether I always did the right thing. But in the case of nds-nl I am very sure: it was right. We surely could have went on mixing Dutch Low Saxon and German Low Saxon in one wiki. But it would have been one mess. It is 400 years since the last time Dutch Low Saxon and German Low Saxon had a common spelling (or at least some kind of much less different spelling). There are around 200 years of steady literary production, which have created two very different and commonly accepted (in their respective areas) spelling styles. The Dutch Low Saxons have a very hard time reading German Low Saxon and vice versa. Perhaps the contributors on the wiki could have adapted to handle the differences, but the random reader of our articles (that's the people, for which we do all this, you know) would have been lost with the spelling. That's a fact. It's a thing we can't deny.

I would accept a move to nds-de, if we create a nice transition plan.

And to the Westphalian thing: Yeah, we are really insulting and injuring and denialist ****, are we. Have you ever asked a person from Westphalia what they call their language, have you? They will tell you, that it is called Plattdüütsch or Plattdüütsk. So much for different language.

And by the way, have you noticed, that all your nds bashing in your post was in no way related to the actual question? You don't like the state of Low Saxon, okay, but Melancholie asked you a question regarding a Bugzilla bug and a code and didn't ask for your general asessment of the 'Low Saxon issue'. --::Slomox:: >< 12:29, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Two bugzilla records are mentioned. I have looked at both. Thank you for your rant. GerardM 14:34, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Well, its your valid choice not to answer. But at least if you are carrying out official actions of the language subcommittee, you have to provide reasoning. Please do so on the Westphalian Wikipedia proposal declared eligible by you, be detailed. --::Slomox:: >< 14:56, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Although code "nds" being the actual one, I think I would also favour "nds-de" in this case (due to consistency). --- Regards, Melancholie 00:42, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Moldavian langauge

Hello, just a quick question. Where this should be discussed then Requests for new languages/Wikipedia Moldavian-Romanian? --Moldopodo^talk 17:01, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

Admin (sysop?)

How can I become an admin for bcl wikipedia? There is no admin there to protect the project. What is the difference between an admin and a sysop? Thanks! By the way, there are only 2 active native speakers in that project. One, the proponent, is me. --Filipinayzd 20:47, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

From Nahuatl Wikipedia

Hi, I found your messages on the discussion page of the Community Portal down the Huiquipedia. I moved your message to the closest thing we've got as a village pump, which is the Community Portal itself. I'll add the link on Meta. I remembered also I already have an account on BetaWiki so I'm still figuring out how everything works there for translation. Thanks for your comments.--Fluence 18:19, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Voorstel om Sranantongo Wikipedia te sluiten

Hoi Gerard,

Als geboren en getogen Surinamer klikte ik heel trots op de link op de Engelse Wikipedia naar de Sranantongo Wikipedia. Die trots veranderde al heel gauw in teleurstelling, en vervolgens in woede!

De vertaling in het Sranantongo slaat nergens op!!!

Ik herkende wel een aantal woorden, maar zag weer een heleboel andere die ik nog nooit had gelezen of gehoord, en ook niet in online Sranantongo woordenboeken kon terugvinden. Om maar niet over de grammatica te spreken.

Voorbeelden

• Een veel voorkomende stoornis is het gebruik van 'ben' als vertaling voor het Nederlands woord 'is', terwijl het 'na' moet zijn (zie de externe bron onder de kop De Grammatica) (zie ook http://www.sil.org/americas/suriname/Sranan/National/SrananNLDictIndex.html voor meer vertalingen).
• Yu o sabi taki... disi e ben a Sranantongo Wikipedia? - Hier staat, vertaald: Je/U zult weten dat ... dit (is bezig te) was de Sranantongo Wikipedia. e geeft een lopend proces aan: a e taki (hij/zij praat, of is bezig te praten), mi e luku (ik kijk, of ben aan het te kijken), yu a lafu (jij lacht, bent aan het lachen)
• A e aksi fu a skopu fu a Sranantongo Wikipedia sa e ben bonmeki efu nanga oten da e ben bon papira - Deze zin slaat gewoon nergens op: Hij/zij vraagt om de schop/spade van de Sranantongo Wikipedia zus (aan het) was (bonmeki, onbekend woord, misschien boom maken) als en wanneer (de/het, kerktaal) (aan het) was boom pagina.
• peprewoysi - Uit de MessagesSrn.php concludeer ik dat dit Pagina's of Artikelen zijn. Echter: peprewoisi znw. een kegelvormig gevouwen papieren zakje, peperhuisje. Ik zie het verband niet.
• Fruwondruwiwiri - Fruwondru: Verwonderen, wiwiri: blad(eren), haren. Ik snap niet hoe dit woord de vertaling kan zijn van "Main Page".

Ga zo maar door! NIETS op die site klopt. Dit maakt dat ik mij afvraag of de voorstellers van dit project wel echt Sranantongo weten te praten of als het gewoon buitenlanders zijn die een maandje of zo in Suriname zijn geweest en dan denken de taal machtig te zijn. Zijn er echte Surinamers betrokken bij dit project?

Ik vraag daarom wat de stappen zijn om een Proposal to Close op te stellen om te voorkomen dat steeds meer mensen dit zien en denken dat het een "definitive source" is voor Sranantongo.

Het ligt in mijn bedoeling dat ik ook zo snel mogelijk contact opneem met prominente figuren in Suriname om ook hun mening hierover uit te spreken. Ook de locale kranten wil ik aanschrijven om hun aandacht erop te richten. Ik weet haast 100% zeker dat het grootste deel van het Surinaams volk beledigd zal zijn hierdoor.

Kun je mij dus zo snel als mogelijk helpen het proces te starten om deze Wikipedia uit de lucht te halen?

Groet, Stretsh 07:13, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Hoi, als je problemen met deze wikipedia hebt, vecht het dan eerst daar uit.. Ik heb indertijd een aantal Surinamers laten beoordelen of dit Sranang was. Zij waren van mening dat dit het geval is. Groetjes, GerardM 07:26, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia approved

• So, the discussion about the Egyptian Arabic proposal was useless. Have you read the discussion?--Mohammed Ahmed 14:24, 23 July 2008 (UTC)
• yes, I have read the discussion. In the opening speech in Alexandria, Anthere indicated that as this language fullfils all requirements, it has been approved and can be started. When a proposal has the status of eligible, there are no technical reasons to deny for a new project. The only thing left is the requirements like localisation and a starting corpus. GerardM 15:04, 23 July 2008 (UTC)
• Well, Have you read the whole discussion? I think you have to make some changes on the New Language Policy, Because the proposal has that ISO it is verified as eligible, then by your saying it will be approved at the end, but the language policy says: "The project will be assessed on its linguistic merits and chances of flourishing. Even if there is strong support, the proposal may be denied if there are strong arguments against its creation and insufficiently strong arguments in support as judged by the language subcommittee" I assume that you can't see strong argument. Do or don't you? What is the purpose of this discussion?

By the way, you have been to the Library of Alexandria, I can assure you that there is no notable book in there written in Egyptian Arabic.--Mohammed Ahmed 15:22, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

• And I will tell you something, In Egypt people do not say "Egyptian language", they say "Egyptian accent".--Mohammed Ahmed 15:26, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks

• Dear GerardM;

Many thanks for everything, especially your neutrality and rational discussion.Ghaly 22:47, 3 August 2008 (UTC) 05:33, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Arabic wikipedia

I do not know if you have seen this already, but I figure I would point you to it if you have not.

An interesting discussion, including the comments to this NY Times blog post--Filll 23:27, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

I just noticed that the articles linked to that one at the bottom of the page are also quite germane, such as this one.--Filll 23:37, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Why has been rejected galego-AGAL proposal?

You argument for reject proposal galego-AGAL (where) as: We do not accept requests for particular orthographies.

But, Galician situation is similar to Norway, with two ortographies (nynorsk and bokmal) and two Wikipedias!! (nn.wikipedia.org and no.wikipedia.org).

Please, explain it to me. Thank you.

--Assorei 09:25, 31 July 2008 (UTC)

In the first place, Nynorsk and Bokmal are considered separate languages.. they each have their own ISO-639-3 code. This situation does not exist for Galician; we do not grant new projects for alternate orthographies, they have to exist within the same project. GerardM 09:35, 31 July 2008 (UTC)

Thank you. But, sample english has an ISO code? Actuallity, Galician wikipedia project (gl.wikipedia.org) does not allow this alternative ortography (and morphology), even when they possess notable social support (inside the community of galician speakers), historical tradition and current vivacity. If to have ISO own proper code is the only route to adquire this recognition, we will begin thereabouts. Thank you again for your replie. A greeting!

--Assorei 07:26, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

It is unlikely that you will get an ISO-639-3 code (recognition as a language) it is more likely that you will get recognition in the ISO-639-6. GerardM 07:39, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

List of Wikipedias in indian languages

Hello Gerard

Could you give me a list of Wikipedias in indian languages please? I need it to ask the users on each Wikipedia their preference in using ٠.١.٢.٣.٤.٥.٦.٧.٨.٩ or 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 so that we can decide on the configuration of MediaWiki.--Alnokta 18:09, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

Each language needs to consider this question for itself. When a language does use particular characters in preference to others, they should be used. Consequently the characters for numbers should reflect how THAT language expresses numbers. It is and should not be relevant what other languages do. Thanks, GerardM 00:56, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

So you are saying it must be possible for each language to specify the characters they want? rather than the popular choice? currently, it is either to enable numeral transform form to the indian and arabic languages or disable it. no way to specify the preference for each language.--Alnokta 19:01, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Personally i am of the opinion that some numbers for instance all occurrences in things that are part of the user interface to be done in the characters associated with the language selected in the user preferences. In this way a recent changes is readable for me never mind how the numbers are expressed in the text of articles. Thanks, GerardM 20:17, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

We already have this base ability -- if the local numerals are not in active everyday use for a language, they simply shouldn't be included in the localization.

The only reason we'd need to do anything additional is if there is disagreement in usage -- that is, if some sites want the numerals in that language, and others don't in the same language. For the Arabic case, I know that the local numerals are very much in active everyday use in Egypt, but there appears to be disagreement overall as they are perhaps less used in other countries, and the European-style numerals are more universally understood. --brion 19:56, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

European-style numerals are more appropriate choice for Arabic as it works for all countries (and popular), the indian numerals are used widely in egypt, yes, but so is the european style numerals, in the same country. what do you need me to do brion so european style numerals are set as default for Arabic language?.--Alnokta 20:10, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

Babel extension

Hello GerardM! I have started the discussion about implemention of the babel extension, do you know any developer I should ask to implement the extension to Wikimedia? M.M.S. 17:43, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

The first thing you need is a community who wants to have this extension implemented.. there are plenty of developers who can ... GerardM 19:33, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Frankish Wikipedia request page

Someone reverted your closure of that request [22]. Should it be reverted back? TML 09:27, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Gerard, that's exactly the attitude which made me call you that word, that you made me remove. That's a very technocrat attitude to the request. You are only looking at the code and not at the actual request. The requester mentioned frk in the request, that is true. But alongside frk he too gave the code vrm. frk is extinct, but vrm is a living language. The requester requested a project in the living language (read the text of the request). It was a formal error to give the frk code in the request header. But we shouldn't reject requests on formalities. --::Slomox:: >< 11:58, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

I had indicated that the request was wrong quite some time ago. If the proposal is not changed as a consequence, the proposal will be judged on its merits. The consequence is that it has to be rejected. Choosing this code for this living language also seems to be problematic because it limits what an be included in this project. Thanks, GerardM 12:02, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

According to Language subcommittee it is the job of the subcommittee members to support new projects. If you knew the request had formal errors, why didn't you support the requesters by cleaning it up and removing frk? --::Slomox:: >< 12:24, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Because I do not have the expertise about Frankisch to help in a meaningful way. When people ask I can listen and learn and then advise. When people ignore my remarks, then it is their choice and their consequences. Thanks, GerardM 12:28, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

What kind of expertise is needed to read There are Million of Franken who are speaking Fränkisch in well known place like Nürnberg, Bamberg, Würzburg, Schweinfurt, and many more sities. and understand that it is not a request for the language of Charlemagne? What kind of expertise is needed to open an edit window and remove the letters frk from the request header? --::Slomox:: >< 12:41, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

I do know that these cities exist, I do not know if they fit the notion of Main-Frankish. Consequently I have done my best by indicating that a problem exists. Thanks, GerardM 13:02, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

What have the cities to do with it? You do not have to know the cities. The cities are completely unrelated to the topic. You only have to know, that the people in Nürnberg do not speak Old Frankish (few languages starting with the word "Old" have any living speakers, I guess). --::Slomox:: >< 13:02, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Yet another complaint

Why did you delete Requests for new languages/Wikipedia Swabian? You gave anonymous request as reason. If it was an anonymous request, I see two possibilites: a) post a notice on the request page and wait for the requester signing the request or b) rejecting the request with reason anonymous request. Another possibility for this particular request would have been to reject it with the reason Swabian already covered by Alemannic (als) project. I don't think, requests should be deleted at all if they are not utter nonsense. --::Slomox:: >< 09:09, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Anonymous requests mean a lot of work. When there is no obvious community behind it, it is a waste of time. Thanks, GerardM 09:23, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, that's a reason to not accept anonymous requests. But not a reason to delete. Please concentrate. Read my post once again and then answer the question which I actually asked. --::Slomox:: >< 09:44, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

By just deleting the request from anonymous users, we only take time for requests from bona fide users. Thanks, GerardM 09:47, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

I don't understand. In what way does deleting requests save time? Or: why are closed requests more time consuming than deleted ones? Why are IP users less bona fide than logged-in users? I really like to have requests documented, even if they failed. Please keep in mind, that requests ineligible due to being unsigned can easily be made valid again by signing them. --::Slomox:: >< 10:32, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

I also don't understand the developing of this case. It seems to be closed. As Slomox mentioned we should have been supported but we were not. I wonder what the true reason is for the rejection.Delos1970 20:05, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

Vilamovian interface

Hi! May I ask you for technical help with setting a vialmovian localisation on translatewiki? I have no idea how to do that. Timpul 12:26, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Read the fine documentation you find there. Thanks, GerardM 12:39, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

map-bms wiki

Can you help me to delete some article in map-bms.wiki. Mikhailov Kusserow 06:05, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

Either ask one of the administrators or ask one of the stewards... It makes sense for a project to have admins who can do this. I am neither on your wiki. GerardM 07:28, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

Arabic SPAM

my argument is the same for all arabic slangs proposed versions .. so I donno why you oppose that ... as my opinion is related to all these proposals I can put it in any of these pages --Chaos 12:52, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

What you are doing is SPAM. If you want to make an argument make it once. GerardM 13:05, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia Masry

• Dear GerardM , just wanted to ask you about the progress regarding creating wikipedia Masry as it has beenapproved in July 2008 and has not been created yet , I made an Inquiry on the bug page but there was no reply . The project is very active currently and all the users there including myself are looking forward to move on the new wikipedia to its own URL arz.ikipedia.org , is there anything else I can do to help in this.

Regarding the wikipedia North Levantine , I have given my opinion and tried to give a hand to anyone who is interested to start the project and I don't think I can add anything else to it , I agree with you if the user who suggested it remains annonymous there will be no point in the proposal.

Many thanks. Ghaly 03:26, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

• I am pushing for the Egyptian Arabic wikipedia to be created... I even mentioned this situation on my blog. Thanks, GerardM 05:01, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

• Many thanks for your prompt reply, best wishes. Ghaly 07:45, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

• Dear GerardM,

Regretfully, I missed the discussion of Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia but I read it more or less thoroughly after it was closed. I believe its approval was in violation of Language proposal policy which states «there must be an extensive body of works in that language»; I failed to notice any reference to such a body of works. Ethnologue also states it is spoken.

I am aware I come too late to participate in that discussion. But now that I am convinced that Language Subcommittee decision violates the policy, I think there must be some formal mechanism in place to challenge this decision, which I intend to undertake, better now than later, to avoid repeating the farse simlar to that of, e.g., Syberian Wikipedia.

I appreciate the enthusiasm of those who have been contributing to the Incubator project and the efforts spent so far but, in my view, policies should have the priority over other considerations — or be changed.

Could you please direct me to relevant documents here or tell me directly how can I initiate an action? I chose to talk to you because you are a member of the Subcommittee.

With best regards,

Abanima 12:11, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

Hoi, the language committee has explicitly been asked and then endorsed the proposal of Egyptian Arabic at the time before the request was changed to "eligible". Given the expectation that people would object to this proposal it was given this extra attention. There have been people before you who objected for political and religious reasons against this proposal. From my personal point of view, if Standard Arabic cannot weather this storm, it only proves the need for an Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia.

From a policy point of view the policy has been implemented correctly and this request is only waiting for implementation. The policies do not allow for the action you want to initiate. Thanks, GerardM 12:54, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

• No, Firstly Religion politics do not count here. Logical and factual arguments were presented in the discussion. If it was about religion, we must say that people who proposed this wiki think that Egyptian Arabic is an Evolution of the Coptic Language. Also, On The English Wikipedia Egyptian Arabic is a variety of the Arabic Language, on the German Wikipedia it is "Arabischdialect" same as Arabic Wikipedia. But on the Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia it is a language of it is own, a source was used. But it tells that Egyptian Arabic is in the group of Arabic dialects. Frankly, I must say that this wiki is a "Wikiduplicate. I hope you understand what this means.--Mohammed Ahmed 13:10, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

• It's a shame there is no mechanism to challenge potentially wrong decisions. Is there at least a way to read the minutes or any other related documents about how the decision was taken by the subcommittee? Or see how the application to the Board of Trustees look? Or should I ask someone else other than you?

I know there were people arguing against before I came :) My argument, as you can see, is political: the decision of the subcommittee violates one or more of Wikimedia policies. The policy clearly requires that proposed language be written and have «an extensive body of works», while Egyptian Arabic has neither: no examples of extensive body of works were given, or were proved to be written in Standard Arabic, and established orthography does not exist but is being developed right in the Incubator, which is clearly original research. Thus, I cannot agree that Language application policy and that related to original research was observed, unless these policies should be interpreted metaphorically.

This makes me strongly suspect that the decision of the Subcommitte might have been influenced by some external factors (i.e. other than Wikimedia policies). I am not saying anything new: all this was clearly expressed in the original discussion (maybe without stating clearly which policies were being specifically violated) but, for some reason, was completely ignored.

P.S. I personally agree with Ethnologue: Egyptian Arabic is an individual language. But I also agree with them it is a spoken language, and haven't seen any proofs of the contrary so far.

Abanima 14:02, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

what's a disgrace?

Hello, I have just come across the discussion of wikipedia Masry over on ar.wp, I saw your comment that the discussion is a 'disgrace' , can you clarify please? is it simply that we should not discuss after the committee made its decision? --Shipmaster 07:54, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

Pontic Wikipedia

Hello GerardM! The Pontic community, has made all the edits requested for this month and for previous months. Can you upgrade the page with the unofficial analysis (for pontic) and to report to language subcomitee to make the necessary? We shall be grateful if you help us! --Consta 16:37, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

Manchu Wikipedia

where is this place where Manchu is being scrutised together with other languages, please provide a link. If the discussion is there and the page is obsolate, why did you preserve the first black square? What does that mean. Please see talk page, I and Pathoschild are unanimous that there is indeed a unique ISO 963 code, do not contest that. Bogorm 20:52, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

It is on the page itself where loads of other languages exist together with Manchu. It is for the apparant lack of specificity that this request has not been given the eligible status. When this project is to exist, it has to be solely Manchu.

The fact that you are of an opinion is not that relevant, these pages are administrative pages that are maintained by members of the language committee. Thanks, GerardM 22:01, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

Wiktionary Ligure

You have recently deleted my request for new language Wiktionary Ligure [23] because of lack of proposers, please roll back and I shall add the usernames of proposers.Kronos 18:19, 5 November 2008 (UTC)

Setting devs under pressure :-)

Hello GerardM, I hope that post will shake them up. Thanks for that :-) I am also wondering (for some time now) why there are plenty of developers (number is increasing) that all ignore simple but important tasks totally. For me the problem is not that tasks are suspended, but that the information policy is just that bad (actually not given at all). Even if someone asks, often no answer at all is given to the public. --- Nice greetings, Melancholie 13:15, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

The isssue is one of priority. The WMF has its priorities in order to function. When tasks that help the community are not given priority that, we can wait forever. Also the WMF is really bad at communicating what they do. Consequently people are often more negative then what is needed. On the other hand, there are always people who will argue that things are bad and that the sky will fall down. By not communicating a lot of noise is reduced and, this allows them to get things done according to THEIR priorities. Thanks, GerardM 14:10, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

PS an answer would be nice :)

Masry localisation

• Thanks to your advice I think all the localisation is done now. Best wishes. Ghaly 18:28, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

• Just wanted to say many thanks for all your efforts that helped to achieve the *official beginning of ويكيبيديا مصرى. Ghaly 20:42, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

Thank You for the support you have extended for the Masry Wikipedia since the very first begining. Now that it has been created, we, all the useres on the project owe you this thoughful note.Best Regards--Ramsis II 04:47, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Status: Punjabi Wikipedia

Dear Mr Gerard M

We have completed the task of the translation of the 485 messages into Punjabi language and started almost 300 articles in this language too. I want to ask you what is the status of our Wikipedia ? When it can be regular ? In regular shape and in easy approach it can attract more readers and writers. So, please how it can be normal and what more we can do to make it regular. Thanks.

Sincerely, Khalid Mahmood 10:40, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Dear Mr.Gerard M

As you can see on Punjabi wiki(incubator), we have started almost 530 articles and Mr. Khalid has made almost 1000 translations and I am more than certain that if Punjabi wikipedia is regularised it can join top 150 wikipedias in quality and quantity within a year as more contributers shall join us. Now whats next? Danish47

arz.wikipedia administration

• Since the website started the users can not move pages and also because I do not have administrator tools ther as I was on the incubator I can not delet any page added that is not encyclopedic like this one , I will be grateful for your help in this matter. Ghaly 03:51, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

Proposals for closing projects/Closure of Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia

Dear GerardM, I have just come across this proposal to close the Egyptian Arabic wikipedia, and I just wonder if it is possible for irrelevany people to propose to close a wikimedia project just because they are having dogmatic beliefs?Please advise..Many thanks--Ramsis II 16:24, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

This is obvious trolling.. Thanks, GerardM 16:33, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

• I am grateful for your continuous support and prompt action.Best Regards--Ramsis II 16:37, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Gerard you are being emotional (you have the idea that you are defending the Egyptians and fighting censorship and helping Egyptians develop their language :) and you quickly deleted the proposal, I could have reverted you but I preferred to learn more from you about why you think it is trolling, because, obviously, we understand it differently. Experiments like these shouldn't take place in Wikimedia, but in other places, like Wikia for example. a question for you: I'm an Egyptian, born, live in Egypt (and so my parents and their parents ...) and speak the dialect of Cairo people. Why you think I'm against arz.*?--Alnokta 17:49, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

why?

hi can i know why you deleted the page "Proposals for closing projects/Closure of Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia"? we as arabic countries have the same language and the same Alphabet but each country have a difrent dialect. in saudi arabia we say "تعال" and its mean "come here" but in sirya they say "تاعا" and it means "come here" too so that's too bad to have wikipedia in a Non-existent language. Believe me If you are in my place, will you want a wikipedia in britin english and and a other wikipedia in american english? i think you will do like me. Saleh M. Tahini 19:46, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

The Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia has just been created. The arguments that you use have been considered in the past and they are considered to be invalid. The notion that these languages do not exist do not match the ISO-639 standard. Thanks, GerardM 22:13, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

is there a way to make WMF close the Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia? like collecting 100 signature to close it. 03:54, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

No. GerardM 06:41, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Hello GerardM I propose the final approval of the bakhtiari Wikipedia. please help me.--Behdarvandyani 15:19, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

localisation and statistics

hey gerardM

i just wnated to read the paper your sent via the wiki-research-mailinglist. unfortunately my software is not able to open odt-files.. do you have another version for me? i am just about getting interested in wikipedia - so there is much i do not know. e.g. what is Lingala wikipedia?

happy x-mas to you! Jojoon 11:01, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

done :) same to you GerardM 15:26, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

AGAL Galician

You have said here that "We do not accept requests for particular orthographies GerardM 16:04, 10 May 2008 (UTC)". So, if we want to write in that orhography, can we do it in the Galician Wikipedia? In Galician Wikipedia should be accepted the AGAL orthography ? Thanks. --Norrin strange 17:40, 30 December 2008 (UTC)