Question: What authority do you, Mark, have over the creation of a new wikipedia? Are you a developer? I don't seem to ever see you contributing patches,
Put simply, I don't. I have no real authority. However, I do know that I have some sway, because different people have varying degrees of respect for me in the matter of languages. There are certainly those who don't trust me at all or who think I don't know much of anything at all about languages, but I think most people believe that I know quite a bit about languages but at the same time have problems with other things about me so they take most of my opinions/advice under advisement.
If some developer wants to create a Tetum WP immediately, I have no say in that. However, I'm pretty sure that the Wikimedia community as a whole will have much more enthusiasm for the creation of a Tetum Wikipedia if its test-wiki is more vibrant and is in 100% Tetum.
etc. on wikitech-l. In fact, almost all the posts that I can see of yours involve some kind of discussion over orthography or languages in various wikipedias, especially when discussing closing one.
From what you say here, it seems to me that you're a relative
newcomer. Before the Moldovan controversy, there was almost never any discussion about closing Wikis, given that the only 2 that have been closed so far are Toki Pona and Klingon.
I'm not sure what's wrong, though, with the fact that almost all of my posts are about languages -- is that a bad thing? Certainly, if you look at other posters, many of them tend to have areas of particular interest as well.
My point is: on what grounds do you consider it your job to be thearbiter of when a proposal for wikipedia creation is good enough?
Who said I do consider it my job? Besides you, that is.
Mark