[Wikipedia-l] Re: Moldovan Wikipedia Proposal

Danutz, a Romanian user, pointed out that it is unfair that Node is the only user which supports the Moldovan Wikipedia, when he does not even speak Moldovan/Romanian very well (it seems he has some Moldovan roots, though) and has placed himself as sysop undemocratically (without any community consensus - note, though, that at that time the Romanian visitors weren't yet aware of the mo.wiki). They therefore feel that an abuse of power is taking place, especially since Node is saying that the Romanian users shouldn't be able to have a say because they aren't Moldovan (in which case, the Romanian users claim that Node also doesn't have a right because he can "barely" speak Romanian/Moldovan).

Hi to all, This is Ronline from the Romanian Wikipedia. We have currently (in the past week especially) had quite a lot of controversy about the Moldovan Wikipedia at http://mo.wikipedia.org. The reason I'm raising the issue here is to gauge the response of the wider community towards my proposal and also what's happening over at mo: Mo.wikipedia.org was founded a while ago, but until about this year, it basically had no content and simply contained a redirect link to the Romanian Wikipedia, since Moldovan is identical to Romanian, renamed for political reasons (I won't go into the whole story now, you can see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moldovan_language). Anyway, so a few months ago, a user called Vertaler came and added some Cyrillic content to the Moldovan Wikipedia. Cyrillic is a script used by a minority of Moldovans. Node_ue (Mark Williamson) supported that and said that he wishes to convert mo.wikipedia.org into a Cyrillic-Moldovan Wikipedia, with all Latin content being placed at ro.wikipedia.org in order to avoid duplication. After negotation with Node, I have come forward with a proposal that he has agreed with, which seeks to establish mo.wikipedia.org as a biscriptal Latin/Cyrillic Wikipedia in interface, and a biscriptal portal, but with Cyrillic content hosted on mo.wikipedia in order to avoid duplication with ro.wiki. The entire proposal is at http://mo.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ronline/Propunere, in English and Romanian. Now, the reason I've come here is because some users from the Romanian Wikipedia do not agree with keeping a Moldovan Wikipedia for Cyrillic content, because they believe that a Moldovan language doesn't exist (most linguists agree with this) and that since Wikipedia is neutral, it shouldn't have a Wikipedia in a language renamed for political reasons like Moldovan. Also, since Cyrillic is no longer the official script in Moldova (it used to be during Communist times), there is no place for it as mo.wiki. Other users agree to Cyrillic content, but not under the "Moldovan language" name. The controversy, which can be viewed at http://mo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Паӂ&#10…80;на принчипалэ, has been exacerbated by the fact that there has been mutual distrust between Node on one hand, and a series of Romanian users, on the other. Node has blamed the Romanian users for being "nationalist" and "radical" and "anti-Moldovan", this being the reason why they don't support a Moldovan Wikipedia. The Romanian users have labelled Node a "Stalinist" and claim that he is not listening to them even though they are in the majority. Danutz, a Romanian user, pointed out that it is unfair that Node is the only user which supports the Moldovan Wikipedia, when he does not even speak Moldovan/Romanian very well (it seems he has some Moldovan roots, though) and has placed himself as sysop undemocratically (without any community consensus - note, though, that at that time the Romanian visitors weren't yet aware of the mo.wiki). They therefore feel that an abuse of power is taking place, especially since Node is saying that the Romanian users shouldn't be able to have a say because they aren't Moldovan (in which case, the Romanian users claim that Node also doesn't have a right because he can "barely" speak Romanian/Moldovan). Now, personally, I have taken a very neutral stance and compelled both sides to argue more rationally and stop the criticism. I also am entirely committed to hearing both sides out and acting in a professional manner. We have made some headway recently, and I have struck an agreement with Node over my proposal, which he seems to support. Some of the Romanian users, however, still do not agree with all parts of the proposal, some of them asking for a separate subdomain for a Moldovan-Cyrillic wiki. What do people say to that? I would personally agree to that, meaning a mo.wiki which is simply a portal, and a mo-cyr.wikipedia.org which hosts only Cyrillic content. I have presented my case here in order to gauge public response. I have also opened a consultation period with the community to allow for any complaints to the proposal, at http://mo.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ronline/Propunere. I'd just like to hear some opinions of people which aren't involved in this case so we can get more neutral, unaffiliated viewpoints. Thanks, Ronline ____________________________________________________ Yahoo! Sports Rekindle the Rivalries. Sign up for Fantasy Football http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com