Oliver, your last summary suggests to me that I should let everyone know in a broader sense what's going on at Incubator right now.
I did a thorough review of Incubator in July 2017. At that point in time:
* There were approximately 1,000 tests having at least one page of content.
* Of those, about 550 were either "substantial" (at least 25 mainspace pages) or "active" (had at least one mainspace page created on or after January 2016) or both. (Those are pretty generous definitions, I think.) The other 450 met neither standard.
* Exactly ten (10) test had fully met the activity requirements for approval:
* Two were actually already approved, but had not yet been deleted from Incubator (Dinka Wikipedia and Dutch Wikinews)
* Three have subsequently been approved and created (Bashkir Wikibooks, Hindi Wikivoyage, Fiji Hindi Wiktionary)
* Two have been cleared for final language review (Ingush Wikipedia, Gorontalo Wikipedia)
* One has met all requirements, but still requires discussion (Lingua Franca Nova Wikipedia)
* The last two are not quite ready for approval yet on other grounds (Algerian Arabic Wikipedia, Atayal Wikipedia)
* I made notes on another 18 or so tests (as comments in the templates feeding Incubator:Wikis<https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Incubator:Wikis>) that are "close to ready". These either (a) had periods in the past that were active enough, (b) were just shy of active enough recently, or (c) have a lot of content, but too few contributors.
I plan to do a similar review about twice a year, if I can manage the time. I try to keep a close eye on the 20 or so tests that are "close" in between.
Steven
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I have marked the following requests as (uncontroversially) eligible:
* Wikibooks Sindhi 2
* Wikipedia Ladin
* Wikiquote Cantonese
Steven
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Hoi,
There is a request for a code for Australian and USAmerican English. For
use in Wikidata there is imho no reason why not to allow it.
Thanks,
GerardM
Back in July, MF-Warburg proposed that these projects could be "deleted" by simply redirecting the urls appropriately:
* mo.wik*.org > ro.wik*.org
* For now, als projects to the appropriate page of als.wikipedia.org, even if als.wikipedia.org will eventually be moved to gsw.wikipedia.org
This was the approach preferred because the developers were reluctant from a technical perspective to truly delete the databases. Nobody on LangCom commented further about that, so there was no closure. So I'm going to start a seven-day clock here: Unless there are objections, after seven days I'm going to mark those requests closed as "successful", with the implementation being accomplished through redirecting the urls. Then MF-W (possibly with help from me) will work through the implementation with the developers.
Steven
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Done. Thank you for your confidence.
Steven
PS: List owners: (1) Please allow my posts to go up automatically, rather than waiting for a moderator. (2) If you think appropriate, please add me to the other list. Thanks.
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Ladies and Gentlemen:
I would like to propose that the Language Committee formally appoint me as clerk. In a similar vein to the way clerks work for bodies like the English Wikipedia Arbitration Committee, my purpose in this is to keep things moving on-wiki that do not really require a member of the LangCom to post on-wiki directly, except as a matter of formal procedure. Thus, for example, I would see this appointment as authorizing the following actions:
* Marking projects as "eligible" when it's obvious—for example, languages that clearly have a large speaker base, and perhaps already have an open Wikimedia project. Anything that is remotely controversial—langcode is for a macrolanguage or constructed language, little or no speaker base, ancient language, etc.—I would not mark, unless expressly authorized by LangCom. Even when I mark an obvious project as "eligible", I would post here that I have done so.
* Marking new project proposals or closing project proposals as approved or not approved when (and only when) a definitive decision has been taken according to the rules set out by LangCom. For example, based on Oliver's posting of 29 October, if there is no further comment on the matter, I would mark the requests to close Nahuatl Wikipedia and Transkievica Wikipedia as rejected on 5 November, one week after Oliver's posting.
There are two main reasons that I am requesting you to appoint me formally. At a certain level, the rules already allow me to take such actions on-wiki if I find compelling enough reason—discussions are unreasonable, disruptive, personal, etc. However, there is room for people to object on the technical grounds that only LangCom members may do these things.
Further, if there were a strong history of LangCom members in fact handling these things promptly on-wiki, there would be no need for me to make this request. But the history, if anything, is otherwise. So I think this would be a positive step for LangCom to take in order to reduce the number of open RFL and PCP requests sitting out there in limbo.
Thank you for your consideration.
Respectfully,
Steven White (User:StevenJ81)
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Ladies and Gentlemen:
User:Marwan Mohamad, a test-administrator for the Gorontalo Wikipedia test on Incubator, provides the following name as a language expert to consult for final approval of this project:
Reiner Ointu (or Ointoe), seratmanado(a)gmail.com
I am copying Marwan on this post, and also copying Biyanto Rebin (User:Biyanto Rebin), Chair of Wikimedia Indonesia. The two of them can help facilitate communications, and perhaps Biyanto better than Marwan (for work reasons).
I will leave it to the Language Committee to communicate directly with the appropriate parties.
Respectfully,
Steven White (User:StevenJ81)
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I have closed these requests as unsuccessful along the lines I suggested over the weekend. Although not officially a clerk, I did this under the authority at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Closing_projects_policy#WMF, because I feel the discussions have become disruptive. Thank you for your understanding.
Respectfully,
Steven White (User:StevenJ81)
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Here is another candidate to verify the Gorontalo Wikipedia test.
Respectfully,
Steven White (User:StevenJ81)
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________________________________
From: Wikimedia Incubator <wiki(a)wikimedia.org>
Sent: Monday, November 6, 2017 3:46 AM
To: StevenJ81
Subject: Wikimedia Incubator email from user "Marwan Mohamad"
Hi Steven,
I'd like to introduce you to another linguist who might be able to verify Gorontalo language in this wiki. His name is Dr. Suleman Bouti, a lecturer at State University of Gorontalo. He can be reached at suleman.bouti(a)gmail.com.
Please let me know should have any inquiries.
Thank you!
--
This email was sent by Marwan Mohamad to StevenJ81 by the "Email this user" function at Wikimedia Incubator. If you reply to this email, your email will be sent directly to the original sender, revealing your email address to them.