Yury Tarasievich wrote:
The alternative Belarusian speakers which comprise the majority of old [[be:]] crew simply *hate* the normative variant of Belarusian, and that's the start and the end of it.
If there was a peaceful relationship between speakers of the two variants of Belarusian, they would long ago have recognized each other and made sure both had language codes, just like it works for Norwegian. As you state, this is not the case. Instead, this is a case where "good fences make good neighbors". If each language community could have their own playground with a strong fence between, they could each play there without disturbing the other. However, for better or worse, such fences cannot really exist inside the Wikimedia Foundation. The WMF community of projects and languages is not divided into groups who hate each other. Content and people are flowing free between the projects and languages. This "WMF unity" is what every subgroup must be a part of. If they can't, they must go somewhere else.
I'm not speaking for the Foundation. On the contrary, I once left Wikipedia to start an alternative website because I didn't agree with how things were being done in Wikipedia at the time (in 2001). I'm speaking from experience, when I recommend the "be-tarask" community to *consider* the option of leaving Wikipedia and setting up shop on their own server or on a hosting provider such as Wikia. Note however: I'm not recommending you to leave, I'm recommending you to *consider* this option. What would it mean for you? It could mean more freedom, being able to do things your way, not being subject to the policies of the Foundation. It would certainly mean isolation, as you would no longer be part of Wikipedia, the internationally renown free encyclopedia. Would the freedom be worth this? It's your choice.
And ultimately: Would the chance to stay within Wikipedia be worth the sacrifice to cooperate with the community of speakers of official Belarusian? Instead of hating their spelling?