2017-04-04 14:11 GMT+02:00 Michael Everson everson@evertype.com:
Here are some of my observations:
- As the biography tag notes, the article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Rehmat_Aziz_Chitrali reads like a résumé. It has a lot of red links to his “notable works”. Check out the other languages it’s available in. A stub in Azerbaijani, Scots, Swedish, Fijian Hindi, and Waray; I didn’t check the links in Arabic script. He hotlinks Associate Fellowship to Honorary Degree and those things aren’t the same.
- The Khowar Academy page links the Academy’s home page to
sites.google.com which isn’t very home-pagey. I mean, there’s no contact information for the Academy. It publishes books by RAC, so it says, on Scribd.
- The Khowar Language page gives a sample of a poem and makes sure to
note the translator’s name and link to his article. It lists TV channels. I don’t know what languages they broadcast in. Khowar?
- The Khowar Alphabet page… is not reliable. Once again it produces RAC’s
translation of a verse of poetry, naming the translatr. It also reproduces an alphabet chart by him with 58 letters. It is poorly produced, attributed to RAC, and seems to map to the Wikitable list in the article. The article points to a (verified) Unicode proposal http://www.unicode.org/L2/L200 6/06149-bashir-prop.pdf to add 4 characters for Knowar, NONE OF WHICH APPEAR in this article OR in the alphabet list at the top of the Khowar Wikipedia.
Look, I’ve been accused of “coflict of interest” about the Wiki article about me. I wouldn’t criticize RAC out of spite. (My page is really out of date in terms of Evertype’s publishing activities which *are* notable in a multilingual sense.) But nothing in these four pages gives me confidence that there is a community of editors working on a Khowar Wikipedia.
My recommendation is that LangCom tell him that his project will be dormant until we have confidence that 10 verifiable users are working on it. That’s a larger number than we normally give, but then it looks like there has been cheating going on. Even if there hasn’t been, the look is enough. RAC should work with Wikimedia Pakistan to get a grant to do a Translatathon or whatever they’re called, and get a real community going. But linguistically, I want to know why he’s not using the Unicode letters added specifically for Khowar.
That’s my view. Michael Everson
I agree with Michael's observations. Especially the point about the inconsistency between the Unicode proposal and the alphabet used in Khowar Wikipedia shows that something is wrong, regardless of the sockpuppet thing.
Now, about RAC's "defence": It doesn't make any sense to me. See below. I'm also sending it to him privately, as he sent me the same mail as he did to Satdeep (I don't know if he follows the list).
"We are using Internet cafe to write articles for this project, if
somebody is also using the same IP and contributing in khowar wiki project, then this is not my fault. On the basis of one IP address one project can not be declined after its approval, this is not fair, this is discrimination with the khowar community."
A bunch of people all using the same internet café *is* possibly a valid explanation for what the CU found (I haven't seen the results myself). Just to note though, this is not only about one IP, but multiple ones that were used within the same hour by these users (this pattern occurring over months). Of course, that is also explainable by the internet café claim.
However, saying "if somebody is also using the same IP and contributing in khowar wiki project, then this is not my fault" makes no sense at all in this context. Why distance yourself from users on the same IP ("not my fault") if you just claimed they are all just your buddies meeting in the café?
"The langcom to check these things before approval and before Phabricator
task, we have already received many congratulations messeges for the approval of this project. This is embarrassing for the community. After approval we have issued to press release. I request you all to restore the phabricator task to its original position subject to the condition that the khowar community contribute more articles in khowar language within one month and complete the task, I assure you sir, trust me and give one month time to engage more regular contributors to complete the task. Your kind cooperation will be highly be appreciated. Please restore the Phabricator Task to its original position subject to condition that the Khowar Community shall contribute more ariticles and complete the task within one month Sharp."
Super sad situation. I'm sorry if we're wrong. However, if you are innocent, why are you coming up with a random "one month task" to "contribute more articles" and/or "engage more regular contributors"? One would think that an approved project already has a good number of good articles. Then again (< https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Incubator:Community_Portal#Thanks_.28Wp...), that is maybe not even the case. Of course, however, we'd be happy to re-approve khw.wikipedia if there are more contributors, as Michael said. Regardless of whether this is in "one month Sharp".
"I am using only one account namely Rachitrali, if the other users are
using the same IP address, this is not my fault, more than 100 and 1000 users are using one IP address, due to same IP address one can not be blamed that he is using 100 or 1000 accounts."
Now suddenly you claim that you are completely unrelated to other users who are using the same IP, while at first you talked of the others being in the same internet café with you. Now what's true?
"I am very shocked to hear that, please block the other two users who are
using multiple accounts, but i am using my personal account Rachitrali, I have no concern with other accounst."
Does that mean "please block my friends from the internet café"?! If yes, sorry, your test-project doesn't have 3 regular contributors anymore.
"I assure you sir that I am arranging Khowar Workshops, seminars and
gathering regarding edit drive in khowar wikipedia, please restore the Phabricator task to its original position, i assure you that I and other users will complete the task within one month."
Very good, just that there is no "one month task".
"So, I am employing more editors, translators and more users for
contribute for a month and within one month we will complete the task In Sha Allah. I am also Trying for doing some workshops and events.
"Trying" vs. "I assure you sir that I am arranging"...
"How we can get grants for that?"