Hi, I'd like to take part in this discussion, but I am just overloaded
with work and some minor projects for the Italian wiktionary etc.
I am writing between the lines.
Long time
Wikimedians, do not know how frustrating it is for new comers
to know how we should do things? We were encourage to be bold, but not
told of the real community taboos, not warned that we must respond to
messages, or someone may put us on RfC, say that we are incooperative
and ban us forever. I spent a lot of time to help one user out of that.
Can the community be more friendly to new comers who may not understand
the tricks and have not contributed much yet?
When I first found wikipedia
and wiktionary as a place where I could
contribute I noted that I was not made for wikipedia - I like to read,
but not to write encyclopedic articles.
Wiktionary then was "my home" - on one hand as it allows me to do as
much as I can - one edit can be done in a minute - and if there's plenty
of time you can indeed do much more.
Lately I discovered other projects that interest me (the proverbs,
wikijunior, recipes) - so it is not said that wikipedia is the best
place to contribute for a newby - sometimes it would be easier to start
contributing anywhere else, and then step by step walk into "wikipedia"
wich is more difficult to approach (at least for me).
So yes, encouraging is great, but we should also try to understand the
person, the hobbies and maybe address them to projects they could really
be fond of and where they can give the best. This is even more difficult
then just explaining the how to's, but it brings more to all of us.
Friendlyness: sometimes it is very hard to comunicate with people you
don't know and friendlyness can be very subjective - it even depends
where the person you talk to comes from. And often people are just to
impatient. Anyway: new contributors instead of being rudely stopped in
what they are doing (this happens) should be contacted directly and one
should say: "Thank you for contributing - it is great to have you here
with us - see: after so many time of wikipedia/wiktionary we set up
certain rules as the more people are contributing the more rules are
needed. Your article is interesting, but does not meet these rules - so
I'd like to explain you step by step how to create ..... - and then
really explain step by step using mails including also descriptive text
you already prepared before.
We should try to write how to's that are not only published on
wikipedia/wiktionary etc. I noted that people read things on other
portals as well. This could help a lot - often people just don't find
where things are written or they don't read every single line. People
are lazy (we all are in some way) - how often do you really read a
instruction manual for a fridge or somthing else you buy? And how often
do you read things that are not as important, but that come from mailing
lists?
Examples:
I have a small portal for translators that has not many visits a day -
approx 30 - 50 from anywhere in the world.
In a forum about wikimedia (manly wiktionary) projects I posted some
topics in Italian only - and people read this:
- How to add a translation to an existing words: 64 reads
- Is it possible to download wiktionary contents: 101 reads
- How to register on wiktionary: 73 reads
Example :
There were no discussions about whether to start a new language or not
before. I am reading all the current discussions with interest, and
wonder if I should really try to go about african languages. For a
single reason, some african languages are not spoken by a lot, or some
african languages are spoken by a lot, but very little written, as
many people just do not know how to write.
This is the case for many minor languages that need to be protected.
Last comments indicated that making the encyclopedia in many languages
was not our goal, but only making the encyclopedia that most people
could read. If such was our goal, I think it would be enough to focus
on english only, and not care for the few people who do not manage for
english (making a rough point here). I am absolutely not supportive of
this point of vew. I present the project as one trying to propose
information in a language people understand well. The best being the
mother language. To my opinion, this is also part of our goal. To make
information available as much as possible in people mother language.
Indeed this should be one of the main goals, as maybe even more people
would learn to read ... and hopefully also to write.
Where does it meet your problem ?
Well, because the bigger we become, the more people insist on quality.
What was acceptable before, is not acceptable anymore today. When you
could work on a 2 000 stubby french wikipedia before, now a 2 000
stubby african language will be questionned. There is resistance to
new projects languages, not because it is more bureaucratic, but a lot
because people feel they have more to protect. A sort of image of
quality carried by the bigger languages, which does not appreciate the
stubs in lesser developped languages.
Indeed - but: every wikipedia is seen as an own project, every wikipedia
develops in another way - so these minor languages must be created to
give them the chance to survive. Not giving this chance means to
estinguish not only the language, but also the culture of the people.
Diversity is important and understanding it is even more important. So
when a new wikipedia in a minor language is started I would suggest to
use a special introduction text - not just the one used for the "big
languages", but to add that this wikipedia not only has the aim to
create encyclopedic content, but also to enable a culture to survive, a
language to survive and that contents for sure are going to develop not
too fast and that people are needed to contribute to make as perfect
articles as possible.
These Wikipedias should be more seen as a project to protect these
languages that in a second stage develop as perfect encyclopedias. For
sure they will take more time, but if it is there and people are working
on it: instead of making the perfectionists we should be proud about the
fact that it is indeed possible to create this very particular Wikipedia
(and maybe wiktionary as well in a second stage).
At this point I'd like to repeat one thing: if someone needs wordlists
out of txt doc etc. files to be created: I have a software that does
this easily. So I can help you with this.
I do not know what to recommand for you to do. You meet the resistance
of the new stubby language, you meet the fear of "possible doubts on
language duplication", you meet the resistance born from Node
insistance. Add the stronger and stronger resistance of a community
trying to protect what has already been done. Not easy. I hope there
is more friendlyness in the future.
Again: please see the creatin of a wikipedia in a specific minor
language from all points of view - not only from the perfectionist one.
Ciao - and we finally have fine weather on the Amalfi Coast :-)
Sabine
--
Sabine Cretella
Translations s.cretella(a)wordsandmore.it
Meetingplace for translators
http://www.wesolveitnet.com
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