[Wikipedia-l] Re: Moldovan Wikipedia Proposal

[Anthere]

Hiya.

I have no personal opinion to give as of now regarding the current 
conflict (I seem to remember I had to make a couple of comments 
regarding this topic several months ago);

However, you raise a side, but important point.

You wrote

 > Danutz, a Romanian user, pointed out that it is unfair
 > that Node is the only user which supports the Moldovan
 > Wikipedia, when he does not even speak
 > Moldovan/Romanian very well (it seems he has some
 > Moldovan roots, though) and has placed himself as
 > sysop undemocratically (without any community
 > consensus - note, though, that at that time the
 > Romanian visitors weren't yet aware of the mo.wiki).
 > They therefore feel that an abuse of power is taking
 > place, especially since Node is saying that the
 > Romanian users shouldn't be able to have a say because
 > they aren't Moldovan (in which case, the Romanian
 > users claim that Node also doesn't have a right
 > because he can "barely" speak Romanian/Moldovan).

Unless I am proven wrong, it is very likely Node asked to be sysop on 
this project when there were no editors (to do precisely what he 
mentionned, interface, main page protection....).

It is a habit amongst stewards to give sysophood very liberally on small 
wikis, as editors who are unique, or only a couple... can't expect to be 
elected "democratically". However, there is also a provision saying that 
if necessary, someone apppointed sysop before there is a community, has 
to be confirmed sysop later if the then build community does wish to 
start elections.

I guess we are in this kind of configuration.

I consequently invite you to organise elections for sysophood and mo.
According to http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_permissions, 
there is no current page for admins. Could you add one and invite 
editors to candidate then vote ?

Naturally, from the moment you start these elections, Node will be 
considered a temporary sysop and will need to be supported by current 
community in order to keep a status which was given to him before there 
was one.

I hope he will stay one as I do not think he did anything wrong... but 
that way, things will be clearer :-)

What do you think ?

Ant


Wikipedia Romania (Ronline) a écrit:
> Hi to all,
> 
> This is Ronline from the Romanian Wikipedia. We have
> currently (in the past week especially) had quite a
> lot of controversy about the Moldovan Wikipedia at
> http://mo.wikipedia.org.
> 
> The reason I'm raising the issue here is to gauge the
> response of the wider community towards my proposal
> and also what's happening over at mo:
> 
> Mo.wikipedia.org was founded a while ago, but until
> about  this year, it basically had no content and
> simply contained a redirect link to the Romanian
> Wikipedia, since Moldovan is identical to Romanian,
> renamed for political reasons (I won't go into the
> whole story now, you can see
> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moldovan_language).
> 
> Anyway, so a few months ago, a user called Vertaler
> came and added some Cyrillic content to the Moldovan
> Wikipedia. Cyrillic is a script used by a minority of
> Moldovans. Node_ue (Mark Williamson) supported that
> and said that he wishes to convert mo.wikipedia.org
> into a Cyrillic-Moldovan Wikipedia, with all Latin
> content being placed at ro.wikipedia.org in order to
> avoid duplication.
> 
> After negotation with Node, I have come forward with a
> proposal that he has agreed with, which seeks to
> establish mo.wikipedia.org as a biscriptal
> Latin/Cyrillic Wikipedia in interface, and a
> biscriptal portal, but with Cyrillic content hosted on
> mo.wikipedia in order to avoid duplication with
> ro.wiki.
> 
> The entire proposal is at
> http://mo.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ronline/Propunere,
> in English and Romanian.
> 
> Now, the reason I've come here is because some users
> from the Romanian Wikipedia do not agree with keeping
> a Moldovan Wikipedia for Cyrillic content, because
> they believe that a Moldovan language doesn't exist
> (most linguists agree with this) and that since
> Wikipedia is neutral, it shouldn't have a Wikipedia in
> a language renamed for political reasons like
> Moldovan. Also, since Cyrillic is no longer the
> official script in Moldova (it used to be during
> Communist times), there is no place for it as mo.wiki.
> Other users agree to Cyrillic content, but not under
> the "Moldovan language" name.
> 
> The controversy, which can be viewed at
> http://mo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Паӂина
> принчипалэ,
> has been exacerbated by the fact that there has been
> mutual distrust between Node on one hand, and a series
> of Romanian users, on the other. Node has blamed the
> Romanian users for being "nationalist" and "radical"
> and "anti-Moldovan", this being the reason why they
> don't support a Moldovan Wikipedia. The Romanian users
> have labelled Node a "Stalinist" and claim that he is
> not listening to them even though they are in the
> majority. 
> 
> Danutz, a Romanian user, pointed out that it is unfair
> that Node is the only user which supports the Moldovan
> Wikipedia, when he does not even speak
> Moldovan/Romanian very well (it seems he has some
> Moldovan roots, though) and has placed himself as
> sysop undemocratically (without any community
> consensus - note, though, that at that time the
> Romanian visitors weren't yet aware of the mo.wiki).
> They therefore feel that an abuse of power is taking
> place, especially since Node is saying that the
> Romanian users shouldn't be able to have a say because
> they aren't Moldovan (in which case, the Romanian
> users claim that Node also doesn't have a right
> because he can "barely" speak Romanian/Moldovan).
> 
> Now, personally, I have taken a very neutral stance
> and compelled both sides to argue more rationally and
> stop the criticism. I also am entirely committed to
> hearing both sides out and acting in a professional
> manner.
> 
> We have made some headway recently, and I have struck
> an agreement with Node over my proposal, which he
> seems to support. Some of the Romanian users, however,
> still do not agree with all parts of the proposal,
> some of them asking for a separate subdomain for a
> Moldovan-Cyrillic wiki. What do people say to that? I
> would personally agree to that, meaning a mo.wiki
> which is simply a portal, and a mo-cyr.wikipedia.org
> which hosts only Cyrillic content.
> 
> I have presented my case here in order to gauge public
> response. I have also opened a consultation period
> with the community to allow for any complaints to the
> proposal, at
> http://mo.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ronline/Propunere.
> I'd just like to hear some opinions of people which
> aren't involved in this case so we can get more
> neutral, unaffiliated viewpoints.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Ronline
> 
> 
> 		
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