User:Hindustanilanguage/Hindieditorreview2011

Discussion with Hindustanilanguage from Hindi Wiki Community

   1. How did you hear about Hindi Wikipedia? How did you reached Hindi Wikipedia?

Any website which aims to reach out to the non-English masses across the world today has to inevitably incorporate Hindi. Some good example this effect are Google, Gmail, Travlang, etc.

   2. Why you decided you must contribute to Hindi wikipedia?

Well, I believe that Hindustani is my native language. Hindi is the national language of India. It embodies the essence of the Indian culture and civilization and any contribution in this language can serve to showcase India to the world and also the world to India. Besides, I hold a degree in Journalism and I have contributed to the Hindi literature, both in the print as well as online, including writing articles to websites such as HindiNest.

   3. What kind of topics you usually edit?

I edit all types of topics and subjects. However, since I contribute to the Wikipedia on a voluntary basis, I make it a point to ensure quality and edit only those article where I can trace and quote the sources easily.

A major point I would like to highlight here is that the Hindi Wikipedia is not the only place on the Wikis which needs contributions in Hindi. There are several templates on the Wikis ('Meta', 'Commons', etc) which have translations available in English, French, Spanish, etc which are widely spoken, written and understood. These templates are also translated in Dutch, Czech which are not as much spoken, read or understood as Hindi. For example I translated 'no watermark' template on Commons which did not have any Hindi translation till I did it. Similarly, the CentralNotice/Generic maintenance notice did not have any notice in Hindi and I had to translate the text.

I have seen admins and contributors exchanging views in French and German on commons but no two Indians exchanging views in Hindi on their respective talkpages. Further, the admins and editors are practically ignorant about uploads in Hindi on the Commons. One such uploader from India posted all her postmarital problems in the forms scanned copies of complaints to police, Maharashtra Government, Union Government, etc. People were confused as nobody knew Hindi, but the general feeling was that the uploads are personal and hence not acceptable on Commons. I am fortunate that I was the only Indian who could provide the translation of the uploaded file. While the file was deleted, the discussion can be seen here.

Every year Wikimedia organizes the Wikimania Conference and I am surprised to see that till Wikimania 2011, no Hindi contributor thought of translating the program and information files, schedules, etc into Hindi. Fortunately, in 2011 I was able to translate and create group of files of the Wikimania event into Hindi for the first time! I also added one or two files of Urdu and three files in Malayalam to these files and created a separate category of files in the Indian languages for the first time!

   4. Why I joined the Hindi Wikipedia?

See the response to question number 2.

   5. Have you attended or organized community meet-ups? What was the outcome? What were the positives and negatives from these meet-ups?

There a number of Hindi speakers in my city. Unfortunately, not many are aware of the Hindi Wikipedia. I have made formal and informal meetings with these people, separately and in groups to educate them on using and contributing to the Hindi Wikipedia.

   6. What has been your experience in adding content or encouraging content on specific topics?

I feel sad to see regrettably low quality of stubs spread over the Hindi Wikipedia. Several articles are no more in length than a sentence. Further, in case of several articles, facts are stated inaccurately. One example I would like cite is the article on Abdus Salam (अब्दुस सलाम). If you see this old link of the article, you will find a line: "अहमदी होने के कारण इन्हें पाकिस्तान ने अ-मुस्लिम घोषित किया और मृत्यु पर इन्हें कोई आदर नहीं दिया।" (because of his Ahmedi origin, Pakistan declared him Non-Muslim and no honour was shown to him after his dead). The English Wikipedia article has more clarity: "Salam was buried in Bahishti Maqbara, a cemetery established by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Rabwah, Pakistan next to his parents' graves. The epitaph on his tomb initially read "First Muslim Nobel Laureate" but, because of Salam's adherence to the Ahmadiyya Muslim sect, the word "Muslim" was later erased on the orders of a local magistrate, leaving the nonsensical "First Nobel Laureate". Under Ordinance XX, Ahmadis are considered non-Muslims." I removed the original text of the article with the edit summary "अघोषित स्रोत के कारण टिप्पणी हटा दी गयी" (Comment removed because the source is not cited). Many more articles on the Hindi Wikipedia need to be checked for accuracy on similar lines.

   7. How are the technical challenges/issues been for your language? Now, is it easy for a new user to start contributing in wiki easily. How about interface translation and other things?

I personally feel that this has improved from what it was during the past few years. However this can be judged by ascertaining the number of people who are joining and continue contributing over a substantial period of time.

   8. How is the interaction between Hindi wiki community members? Is there is enough interaction? Or, is it just users working in their own way by just creating articles and not having much interaction with other users? Do you benefit from the discussion with other community members?

I suggest that the talkpages and offline reported events should be taken as a measure of the involvement of the members. My personal feeling (may be wrong) is that talkpage exchanges between Hindi Wikipedians are dismally low compared to English and German Wikipedia and should be encouraged so that members cooperate with each other on a greater scale for Wiki Projects.

   9. Could you share any and all ideas - small or big, sucessful & not-so-sucessful - that you think can help drive Hindi and other Indic language projects?

I tried to present an idea in the form of a presentation at Wikimania 2011. Although I could not go to the Conference or present my Idea in person, some of the points which I tried to present may be viewed in my submission proposal.