Dear Wikimedians,
I want to share with you that the Basque Wikipedia is the fourth language (after English, Serbian and Catalan) to complete the expanded list of articles every Wikipedia should have<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_articles_every_Wikipedia_should_hav…>. We have gone up 10 spots in the list of Wikipedias by expanded sample of articles<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias_by_expanded_sample_of_ar…> (from 33rd to 23rd) and we think we will go up another couple of positions when the list is updated in January. You can plot the evolution in this graph I just made (there is a svg version, if someone wants to mark their language): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Euskarazko_Wikipediaren_sailkapena_….
This year we decided to improve this list. We had a list of 1.324 articles to make, and all the other articles to improve, and we divided it by monthly writing contests. Each month a topic was chosen (January was for history, February for arts...) and we made an extra contest in December (ongoing) with the articles that weren't created in the previous 11 months. Each month three prizes were given, basically gift cards to buy in local book-stores across the Basque Country (this can be more difficult for geographically wider languages, but not impossible). The total budget for the competition was 2.750€, covered with the grant the Basque Government gives us every year.
Now we have other goals. The most important one is expanding the shortest articles, something easy to spot with a PetScan search<https://petscan.wmflabs.org/?psid=23553331>. Yes, we also added all the articles to PagePiles and Wikidata, so it is easier to find missing topics in every language.
If you want to share our happiness, we are celebrating it on Twitter (https://twitter.com/euwikipedia/status/1607678841178427394), Mastodon (https://mastodon.eus/@euwikipedia/109585094213814278) and our blog (http://wikimedia.eus/2022/12/euskara-4-hizkuntza-wikipedia-guztiek-izan-beh…). Feel free to share our joy.
Best,
Galder Gonzalez
Basque Wikimedians User Group
On behalf of Wikimedia Taiwan, we would like to say that this is long overdue. For more than half a decade, good faith volunteers from Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland, and Taiwan have raised concerns about dangerous members of that organization, including in the Signpost(1) (repeatedly(2)). It is not the kind of threat that communities or even larger ones, like our wiki, can deal with entirely on their own. We have been having very exhausting years.
Now there is some hope. But we have a lot of work ahead of us as a volunteer community, and we call upon the Foundation to meet its commitment of support as we do. We need to rebuild an inclusive wiki that welcomes everyone from all places who wants to contribute to Chinese language Wikipedia in good faith. Many people have felt very unsafe for years, so restoring a shared sense of comfort will likely take a long time. Doing this work is very important to get back to focusing on knowledge and Wikipedia’s five pillars that should unite our community.
Yuan Chang, Chairman of Wikimedia Taiwan
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2019-10-31/In_fo…
(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2021-07-25/Speci…
中文版本:
在此僅代表台灣維基媒體協會聲明，這個行動是遲來的努力。多年來，香港、中國大陸和台灣的用戶一再呼籲對該組織中的危險成員與行為的關切，包括但不僅止於之前於Signpost報導(1) (另一則報導(2))中所提及。這不是社群，或甚至整個中文維基，可以自行處理的威脅。這些年我們心力交瘁。
現在的處置，讓我們覺得終於有了一些希望。但作為志願者組織，我們仍有很多工作要做，並希望基金會能大力支持。我們需要重建一個具有包容性的維基百科，歡迎來自所有地區，願意真誠貢獻中文知識的參與者。這幾年來，許多參與者感到不安，要恢復原本平和的氛圍，需要相當長時間的努力。這個工作非常重要，有助於我們把心力集中在知識，以及團結我們社群的維基百科的五大支柱上。
台灣維基媒體協會理事長 張遠
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2019-10-31/In_fo…
(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2021-07-25/Speci…
Original Link of the statement: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Taiwan/Declaration/Wikimedia_Taiw…
Worth a read:
https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/mozilla-launch-fediverse-instance-socia…
"Our intention is to contribute to the healthy and sustainable growth
of a federated social space that doesn’t just operate but thrives on
its own terms, independent of profit- and control-motivated tech
firms. An open, decentralized, and global social service that puts
the needs of people first is not only possible, but it’s absolutely
necessary."
I don't think Wikimedia Foundation should get into the social media
business, but it should IMO absolutely maintain an organizational
presence on the fediverse (Mastodon & friends). It's a bit sad that
the only social media profiles linked from
https://wikimediafoundation.org/ are corporate ones -- especially as
it's becoming quite clear that the fediverse is emerging as a
singularly credible [1] alternative to Twitter, which is being run
into the ground by its new owner.
In other words, it would be wonderful to see a similar forward-looking
statement & associated actions from Wikimedia Foundation soon :-).
Erik
[1] See, e.g., https://www.deweysquare.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/DSG-Snapshot-of-the-…
for some number-crunching on where folks are and aren't going.
