On 7/26/2010 11:50 PM, Achal Prabhala wrote:

Following on from Ian's post, I thought I'd list the existing Wikipedias in South African languages - as they exist (excluding English). I was wondering if it might be worth finding out who the editors behind some of these pages are - while some of the SA language Wikipedias host very few articles, clearly there is someone behind them and someone who took the trouble to create them and start initial pages. From my understanding, the group of people on this list - as it stands - does not include any non-English/Afrikaans editors as yet, and so it would be worth our while to contact the people behind these pages and find out how we can help them grow:

Afrikiaans: 15704 articles (http://af.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuisblad)

I'm not sure if I can do better than the active editors in identifying relevant users in Afrikaans.

Swati: 175 articles (http://ss.wikipedia.org/wiki/Likhasi_Lelikhulu)

http://ss.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Madudula appears to be a user fluent in Swati, and has contributed substantial information to articles. He/she appears to have email set up, by contacting them at http://ss.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmailUser:Madudula

Tsonga: 173 articles (http://ts.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tlukankulu) http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:Thuvack/Quote_Thuvack is a page all about a user (and administrator) who has contributed greatly to the Tsonga Wikipedia.

Venda: 164 articles (http://ve.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayani)

http://ve.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Ralinala appears to have done a great deal of the content. They haven't contributed since 2007, however, and have no email address set up. Other content has been done by an IP address.

Zulu: 147 articles (http://zu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikhasi_Elikhulu)

http://zu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Smzuma added a bunch of information on May 31, 2010. Both accounts have email addresses enabled

Xhosa: 115 articles (http://xh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iphepha_Elingundoqo)

It appears that the content has been created by non-speakers (who have received translation help) and IP addresses.

Tswana: 105 articles (http://tn.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page)

http://tn.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Tefo created a lot of content until 2007. Does not have email enabled. http://tn.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Kutlwano4 added some information in 2009. Has email enabled.

Sotho: 69 articles (http://st.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leqephe_la_pele)

The content on Sotho has been created by non-speakers and IP addresses.

Any help that anyone can provide in this regard is much appreciated. I'm also copying Cary Bass from the Wikimedia Foundation who widely interacts with editors and other volunteers - Cary, if you can recommend Wikipedians we can get in touch with regarding the languages listed above, that would be great. (You will probably have to subscribe to this list to post to it, and it would be good to have you on here anyway).