On Mon, Apr 05, 2004 at 08:06:12AM -0700, Ray Saintonge wrote:
Andre Engels wrote:
It varies, but then, it also varies for some much larger languages (Marathi with 65 million speakers has only 4 pages, for example). There's four Wikipedia languages with less than 100.000 speakers, none of them getting anywhere serious, however the fifth smallest language (Icelandic, 250.000 speakers) managed to get to a number of 9 Wikipedians (with 10 or more logged-in edits), and is seriously trying to make something.
Regretably, in a few instances the proponents start the wiki in their language just to see if it can be done. When they have immediate success, they lose interest.
I can talk from experience.
HU was existing since 1991, and contained 5 pages (when I last counted). One main page with dead links, 1 page with real, short content, and the others varying from "hehehehe" to "*** your *** *** mother".
I convinced brion to flush it down the toilet and start again, and invested considerable amount of time to get it started. Now, with 5 or so permanent editors it is alive and probable won't die anymore.
What a new language needs is more than zero permanent editor with dedication to create as much articles that makes it look like a worthwile waste of time for the people walking nearby. I'd say without 3 dedicated editors (friends preferably) a new language should not be started. It is probably going to get extinct soon, because there are at least 50 articles required to be created before people consider it serious.
Maybe I should write that into [[Wikipedia:What to expect when you start a new langauge Wikipedia]]?
I suppose that a seriously inactive Wikipedia could be put into suspense, and the work that has already been done could be revived if there is a renewed interest. From the above list Manx, Maori, and Corsican would be candidates for suspension depending on how long since their last activity.
I do not yet see the purpose and method of this suspension. Deactivating the domain would change the neutral effect to negative. These wikipediaes suspend themselves.
Maybe there could be a boilerplate text on the main page of the zombie wikipedias that "this wikipedia lacks supporters of this natural language speakers and doesn't evolve right now. if you want to adopt this orphan, and want to dedicate time, see [[XXXX]] what to expect"... or like. In their natural language, preferably.
grin