2017-04-04 14:11 GMT+02:00 Michael Everson <everson(a)evertype.com>om>:
Here are some of my observations:
1) 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.
2) 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.
3) 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?
4) 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 (My page is really out of
date in terms of Evertype’s publishing activities which *are* notable in a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_.28W…)t;),
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?"
http://wikimediapakistan.org/