[Foundation-l] Allow new wikis in extinct languages?

[Mark Williamson]

I think it depends on the community.

For example, in the case of Coptic, it is very much alive in certain
senses of the word - it is a thriving liturgical language, and it
represents their unique cultural heritage.

In the case of the Massachusett-Narragansett language, there is a
community actively working at reviving it as a living language in some
form.

In the case of, say, Old English, however, for which we already have a
Wikipedia, there is little interest in language revival, and most
people interested in the language are hobbyists.

I would thus personally recommend approval of Coptic and
Massachusett-Narragansett if they had enough "fluent speaker"
supporters, but against the approval of something analagous to Old
English.

Mark

On 29/03/2008, Jesse Martin (Pathoschild) <pathoschild at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
>  The language subcommittee only allows languages that have a living
>  native community (except Wikisource, due to its archivist nature).
>  This is based on an interpretation of the Wikimedia Foundation mission
>  to "provide the sum of human knowledge to every human being". Thus,
>  the overriding purpose of allowing a wiki in a new language is to make
>  it accessible to more human beings. If a language has no native users,
>  allowing a wiki in that language does not fit our mission because it
>  does not make that project accessible to more human beings. Instead, a
>  wiki in their native languages should be requested if it doesn't
>  already exist.
>
>  Typically, the users requesting a wiki in an extinct language don't
>  want to provide educational material to more people at all, but only
>  want to promote or revive the language. While these are noble goals,
>  they are not those of the Wikimedia Foundation, so that a wiki should
>  not be created simply to fulfill them.
>
>  But that is my opinion. What do you think; should wikis be allowed in
>  every extinct language?
>
>
>  --
>  Yours cordially,
>  Jesse Plamondon-Willard (Pathoschild)
>
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