Hi Mark,
After much thought, I have had a change-of-heart regarding separate Wikipedias for Low Saxon.
That is a surprise.
HOWEVER, I still believe it is wrong to divide on national borders. From what I can tell, Stellingwarfs, Grunnegers, Dreents, Tweants, and Achterhooks are all different enough from one another to warrant separate Wikipedias.
The national border is a border of spelling.
Sample:
Stellingwarfs: Et doempien hadde zien nust in et waegenhokke. Op een keer weren beide oolden uutvleugen. Ze hadden eten haelen wild veur de jongen en hadden de jonkies hielendal allienig laoten. Grunnegers: t Was ain van de schierste zummers sinds joaren. n Steltje keudeldoemkes haren heur nust baauwd in de woagenschure stoef achter de baanderdeure. Op n dag sluigen baaide ollen de vleugels uut. Ze wollen veur de jongen wat te bikseln hoalen en luiten doarom de lutjen hailendaal allind achter.
...
Well, these different texts are not direct translations of each other. There is a lot of paraphrasing in them.
The main question here is: how different are theses 5 dialects of Low Saxon from each other from their own perspective. In other words: I think it is up to those people from this area to just tell us what they want. My guess is that they will feel that they can work together in one wikipedia. After all they did not ask for 5 new wikipedias, but just for one.
Kind regards,
Heiko