"Peter Gervai" grin@tolna.net schrieb:
As a sidenote: Hungary have a population of 10,000,000 people (with speakers approximated around 15,000,000) and we have around 5 permanent active editors. (Though I expect that raise soon since there going to be some press activity.)
I always wondered what can a wikipedia do supporting a language of, say, 100,000 people. Half an editor?
I haven't checked what's about wikipedias with small speaker base after 3-6 months, what activity they possess. I wonder.
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.
Wikipedia languages with less than 1 million speakers:
speakers Wikipedians pages Manx 250 0 1 Nauruan 7.000 2 16 Maori 50.000 0 8 Scottish 60.000 1 14 Icelandic 250.000 9 209 Irish 260.000 3 62 Corsican 340.000 0 14 Occitan 350.000 7 493 Welsh 600.000 9 954 Basque 600.000 5 2319 Frisian 700.000 9 881
Andre Engels
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.
Wikipedia languages with less than 1 million speakers:
speakers Wikipedians pagesManx 250 0 1 Nauruan 7.000 2 16 Maori 50.000 0 8 Scottish 60.000 1 14 Icelandic 250.000 9 209 Irish 260.000 3 62 Corsican 340.000 0 14 Occitan 350.000 7 493 Welsh 600.000 9 954 Basque 600.000 5 2319 Frisian 700.000 9 881
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 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. There would need to be a prominent mention somewhere (perhaps after the list of active pedias) inviting people to breathe life back into them.
Ec
What would be the purpose of suspending them? I would suggest we manualy remove links to inactive wikipedia's and when somebody is ready to revive them then he/she will find everything ready. Lithuanian wikipedia has been inactive for about 6 months and now is starting to get more wikipedians and finally reached 100 pages. If editing it would have been "suspended" or otherwise complicated the chances of revival are pretty low. As inactive wikipedia dont take space I don't see any reason to suspend or close inactive one as wikipedia is atracting more and more users and some of them will probably try to revive inactive wikipedias. "Ray Saintonge" saintonge@telus.net wrote in message news:407175E4.7050500@telus.net...
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.
Wikipedia languages with less than 1 million speakers:
speakers Wikipedians pagesManx 250 0 1 Nauruan 7.000 2 16 Maori 50.000 0 8 Scottish 60.000 1 14 Icelandic 250.000 9 209 Irish 260.000 3 62 Corsican 340.000 0 14 Occitan 350.000 7 493 Welsh 600.000 9 954 Basque 600.000 5 2319 Frisian 700.000 9 881
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 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. There would need to be a prominent mention somewhere (perhaps after the list of active pedias) inviting people to breathe life back into them.
Ec
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
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