Also, unlike a decade ago, LangCom has expert
legitimacy and integrity
now, as well as a decade of experience. That's the reason why I don't
think that any group would use majority as a tool to push unreasonable
decisions.
Speaking of which... Would it be possible for me to apply for membership of
the Langcom? I've been following the discussions on this mailing list for
about two years now, and I hope I might be helpful to you.
A short introduction:
My name is Jan van Steenbergen, I'm 46 years old and I live in IJmuiden,
the Netherlands. I work as a professional translator and interpreter Polish
<> Dutch. Linguistics is both my work and my hobby. My main fields of
interest are Slavic languages, constructed languages, Cyrillic and Eastern
Europe. My "language package" can be found on my user page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:IJzeren_Jan (mind, the languages
listed there are those that I have actually learned to some degree – there
are dozens of other languages I can understand, or know the basics of).
I've been editing Wikipedia sporadically since 2003 as an anonymous user,
and have been more active after I created my first user account in 2004. My
home wiki is nlwiki, where I am currently an admin. I've been editing
several other language versions as well, but less frequently.
As I already explained in my post about Lingua Franca Nova, when it comes
to the question whether a language should be allowed to have its own wiki
or not, my primary criterion would be viability/sustainability. In other
words, does a potential project have good perspectives for success?
Obviously, a large community of native speakers is a good thing to start
with, but if a language has 50 mln. speakers and there is nobody willing to
work on a wiki, then the project is doomed to become a failure anyway. What
we surely want to avoid is dead wikis where practically every article is
just three or four words. On the other hand, if a language has no native
speakers at all, yet it is still able to generate a prospering wiki, then I
am all for it. Even a wiki in a language without native speakers can become
a success, provided that the language is well-documented, stable and
complete, and provided that there are enough people willing to work on it.
As far as I am concerned, if a language is doing well in the Incubator for
a longer period, that means it has passed the exam.
Best regards,
Jan van Steenbergen