Hi, I'd like to take part in this discussion, but I am just overloaded with work and some minor projects for the Italian wiktionary etc.
I am writing between the lines.
Long time Wikimedians, do not know how frustrating it is for new comers to know how we should do things? We were encourage to be bold, but not told of the real community taboos, not warned that we must respond to messages, or someone may put us on RfC, say that we are incooperative and ban us forever. I spent a lot of time to help one user out of that.
Can the community be more friendly to new comers who may not understand the tricks and have not contributed much yet?
When I first found wikipedia and wiktionary as a place where I could contribute I noted that I was not made for wikipedia - I like to read, but not to write encyclopedic articles.
Wiktionary then was "my home" - on one hand as it allows me to do as much as I can - one edit can be done in a minute - and if there's plenty of time you can indeed do much more.
Lately I discovered other projects that interest me (the proverbs, wikijunior, recipes) - so it is not said that wikipedia is the best place to contribute for a newby - sometimes it would be easier to start contributing anywhere else, and then step by step walk into "wikipedia" wich is more difficult to approach (at least for me).
So yes, encouraging is great, but we should also try to understand the person, the hobbies and maybe address them to projects they could really be fond of and where they can give the best. This is even more difficult then just explaining the how to's, but it brings more to all of us.
Friendlyness: sometimes it is very hard to comunicate with people you don't know and friendlyness can be very subjective - it even depends where the person you talk to comes from. And often people are just to impatient. Anyway: new contributors instead of being rudely stopped in what they are doing (this happens) should be contacted directly and one should say: "Thank you for contributing - it is great to have you here with us - see: after so many time of wikipedia/wiktionary we set up certain rules as the more people are contributing the more rules are needed. Your article is interesting, but does not meet these rules - so I'd like to explain you step by step how to create ..... - and then really explain step by step using mails including also descriptive text you already prepared before.
We should try to write how to's that are not only published on wikipedia/wiktionary etc. I noted that people read things on other portals as well. This could help a lot - often people just don't find where things are written or they don't read every single line. People are lazy (we all are in some way) - how often do you really read a instruction manual for a fridge or somthing else you buy? And how often do you read things that are not as important, but that come from mailing lists?
Examples: I have a small portal for translators that has not many visits a day - approx 30 - 50 from anywhere in the world. In a forum about wikimedia (manly wiktionary) projects I posted some topics in Italian only - and people read this: - How to add a translation to an existing words: 64 reads - Is it possible to download wiktionary contents: 101 reads - How to register on wiktionary: 73 reads
Example : There were no discussions about whether to start a new language or not before. I am reading all the current discussions with interest, and wonder if I should really try to go about african languages. For a single reason, some african languages are not spoken by a lot, or some african languages are spoken by a lot, but very little written, as many people just do not know how to write.
This is the case for many minor languages that need to be protected.
Last comments indicated that making the encyclopedia in many languages was not our goal, but only making the encyclopedia that most people could read. If such was our goal, I think it would be enough to focus on english only, and not care for the few people who do not manage for english (making a rough point here). I am absolutely not supportive of this point of vew. I present the project as one trying to propose information in a language people understand well. The best being the mother language. To my opinion, this is also part of our goal. To make information available as much as possible in people mother language.
Indeed this should be one of the main goals, as maybe even more people would learn to read ... and hopefully also to write.
Where does it meet your problem ?
Well, because the bigger we become, the more people insist on quality. What was acceptable before, is not acceptable anymore today. When you could work on a 2 000 stubby french wikipedia before, now a 2 000 stubby african language will be questionned. There is resistance to new projects languages, not because it is more bureaucratic, but a lot because people feel they have more to protect. A sort of image of quality carried by the bigger languages, which does not appreciate the stubs in lesser developped languages.
Indeed - but: every wikipedia is seen as an own project, every wikipedia develops in another way - so these minor languages must be created to give them the chance to survive. Not giving this chance means to estinguish not only the language, but also the culture of the people. Diversity is important and understanding it is even more important. So when a new wikipedia in a minor language is started I would suggest to use a special introduction text - not just the one used for the "big languages", but to add that this wikipedia not only has the aim to create encyclopedic content, but also to enable a culture to survive, a language to survive and that contents for sure are going to develop not too fast and that people are needed to contribute to make as perfect articles as possible.
These Wikipedias should be more seen as a project to protect these languages that in a second stage develop as perfect encyclopedias. For sure they will take more time, but if it is there and people are working on it: instead of making the perfectionists we should be proud about the fact that it is indeed possible to create this very particular Wikipedia (and maybe wiktionary as well in a second stage).
At this point I'd like to repeat one thing: if someone needs wordlists out of txt doc etc. files to be created: I have a software that does this easily. So I can help you with this.
I do not know what to recommand for you to do. You meet the resistance of the new stubby language, you meet the fear of "possible doubts on language duplication", you meet the resistance born from Node insistance. Add the stronger and stronger resistance of a community trying to protect what has already been done. Not easy. I hope there is more friendlyness in the future.
Again: please see the creatin of a wikipedia in a specific minor language from all points of view - not only from the perfectionist one.
Ciao - and we finally have fine weather on the Amalfi Coast :-)
Sabine