[Wikipedia-l] Serbo-Croatian Wikipedia

[Mark Williamson]

Hi all,

Andre Engels has recently locked the sh.wikipedia database at the
recommendation of Tim Starling, on the grounds that it is "supposed to
be dead".

However, if I recall correctly, there is a story behind the continued
existance (until now) of the Serbo-Croatian Wikipedia in the shadow of
the Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian Wikipedias, perhaps something along
the line of there still being people who push for the usage of the
unified form again?

While I realise that much of the content at sh.wikipedia does not
belong there, simple locking of a database is no way to deal with
inappropriate content, rather it should be discussed with the relevant
people who can help fix it in the proper way.

And while Serbo-Croatian may no longer be the official language of a
state, it still exists parallel to Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian, and
Montenegrin (this may or may not be an actual language, the whole
question of these 5 different varieties which are, depending on who
you speak to, different languages or different dialects). Bosnian,
Serbian, and Croatian are pushed by Bosnian, Serbian, and Croatian
nationalists as well as their respective governments, Montenegrin is
pushed in Montenegro (Crna Gora) by nationalists but a measure to make
Montenegrin rather than Serbian the official language of Montenegro
failed. However, something like 30% of the population writes on the
census that rather than Serbian they speak Montenegrin. Serbo-Croatian
is very controversial, but it is still pushed by some.

Mark