[Foundation-l] Language codes to rename

[Brion Vibber]

For quick background, it's pretty painful to rename a database in our
system, and we currently have a lot of bits in our configuration that
make automatic relationships between the database name and the domain
name, so this has delayed renaming of some language subdomains for a while.

It's not impossible to have them be different, just fairly awkward. :)

I'd like to get these done soon, but before we get started, I want to
make sure the queue is complete and ready to go. I've currently got four
language code renames that I see being requested...

== Aromanian ==

roa-rup.wikipedia.org -> rup.wikipedia.org
roa-rup.wiktionary.org -> rup.wiktionary.org

https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15988

ISO-639-2 code 'rup' was added in September 2005, and can supersede the
generic 'roa' code with 'rup' subtag.

This seems pretty uncontroversial. Existing domains and interwikis would
be redirected.


== Low German ==

nds.wikipedia.org -> nds-de.wikipedia.org
nds.wikibooks.org -> nds-de.wikibooks.org
nds.wikiquote.org -> nds-de.wikiquote.org
nds.wiktionary.org -> nds-de.wiktionary.org

https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8540

Reasoning: Disambiguation of country variants to create a portal site
(nds-nl.wikipedia.org exists as well).

The original request is almost 2 years old and didn't seem to have any
clear consensus; is this still desired?

Creating a portal site could cause difficulties with URL compatibility,
and I don't really recommend making this change without clear consensus
from the community there.

Note that nds.wikipedia.org includes a link on the front page to
nds-nl.wikipedia.org.


== Moldovan ==

mo.wikipedia.org -> mo-cyrl.wikipedia.org
mo.wiktionary.org -> mo-cyrl.wiktionary.org

The official Moldovan language is the same as Romanian, using Latin
script and same orthography as on ro.wikipedia.org. Latin script was
officially adopted in 1989, replacing Soviet-era Cyrillic script; use of
Cyrillic script is still "official" in an unrecognized,
lightly-populated breakaway region but if people there use it, they
don't seem to edit Wikipedia...

The 'mo' language code has been officially deprecated from ISO 639-1/2
as of November 3, 2008; "Moldovan" in general use is just Romanian, and
is covered by ro.wikipedia.org.

mo.wikipedia.org has not actually been edited since December 2006.
mo.wiktionary.org seems to have.... 4 definition pages, which only
contain translations (no definitions!) Being inactive, these projects
could be closed in addition to / instead of the rename.

Use of tag 'mo-cyrl' would follow existing IANA-registered language
subtags such as 'bs-Cyrl' and 'bs-Latn' for Cyrillic and Latin script
variants.

Most likely, for compatibility we would redirect the existing 'mo' URLs
to the new 'mo-cyrl' ones, but they would now be visibly marked by the
subtag as being "yes we know, it's Cyrillic here". If we're going to
lock the site as well, adding a sitenotice pointing to the Romanian wiki
is probably wise.


== Belorusian "old orthography" ==

be-x-old.wikipedia.org -> be-tarask.wikipedia.org

https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9823

Some time ago we swapped around the Belorusian Wikipedia, moving the
previous version which was primarily using a non-official orthography,
from 'be' to 'be-x-old', and re-establishing be.wikipedia.org using the
official state orthography.

There was later a request to rename 'be-x-old' (using a non-standard
code) to 'be-tarask', a IANA-registered subtag which is rather more
descriptive. IMHO this change should not be terribly controversial -- if
we're not closing it, we may as well give it its official RFC
4646-registered code.

Old domain and interwikis would be redirected.


-- brion vibber (brion @ wikimedia.org)