"Peter Gervai" grin@tolna.net schrieb:
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".
1991? Sounds improbable, given that the Wikipedia project as a whole only exists since 2001.
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.
And a single person writing will likely give up before that point is reached, while a small group will tend to give the positive feedback that makes people continue. On the other hand, often the first group will come from single persons who just arrived at approximately the same time, so I would still like not to discourage single people from editing a new language Wikipedia.
Perhaps we could have people from a 'related' language keep an eye on such small languages. A number of Dutch speakers (among which yours not so humbly) have helped the Frisian Wikipedia to start up in that way, and I think some French did with Occitan (?). The idea is to welcome people on the 'small' Wikipedia in the same way one would do on the 'big' one - say hello, wikify their contributions etcetera.
This way new contributors might find themselves in a 'spread bed', and be more likely to stay long enough that a second and third one has come in between.
Andre Engels