Hello all,
As of yesterday, when you go to a missing wiki (the redlinks on
Special:SiteMatrix) you will no longer see a static "this wiki does
not exist" error, but it will redirect to the Wikimedia Incubator,
where there is either a development wiki or an info page inviting you
to start one.
Exceptions are Wikiversity and Wikisource, because they are hosted on
different wikis.
For existing development wikis, going to for example
<http://or.wikiquote.org> directs you to the main page
<http://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wq/or/ପ୍ରଧାନ_ପୃଷ୍ଠା>. You can
also link directly to a page:
<http://or.wikiquote.org/wiki/ରଜ_ଦୋଳି_ଗୀତ> to
<http://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wq/or/ରଜ_ଦୋଳି_ଗୀତ>. This also
enables interwiki links to these Incubator pages. (Interwiki bot
maintains: you are welcome to make use of that!)
For missing wikis, going to for example <http://arz.wikinews.org>
directs you to an info page
<http://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wn/arz> which is an improved
version of the "this wiki does not exist" page: it is adapted to the
respective language, and the messages are localisable through
<https://translatewiki.net/wiki/Special:Translate/ext-wikimediaincubatorinfopage>.
(Translators: you are welcome to translate that!)
It only works for languages listed on SiteMatrix, so in general it
doesn't work for Wikipedias on Incubator.
Regards,
Robin (aka SPQRobin)