Grants talk:Project/Rapid/The Nigerian Pidgin Project

Comment from Wikimedia Nigeria Foundation Inc.

Hi Samatics, this is a follow up to your notification on the Wikimedia User Group Nigeria Talk page. We sincerely appreciate your effort to improve our encyclopedia. Unfortunately, the entire Nigerian community members including, the Yoruba, Hausa Igbo affiliates, have initiated the Naijá Wikimedians User Group to foster various activities that will kick start the Naijá ( Popular known as Pidgin English, in the community. They've also informed us about their grant for this task. We will, therefore, appreciate it if you and your team could join forces with the entire community to build the encyclopedia together Cheers .--Wikimedia Nigeria (talk) 09:42, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

Response from Samatics

Hello Wikimedia Nigeria, I am glad to hear this and I would be glad you join forces with us. But unfortunately I couldn't see where this grant is attributed to the Nigeria Wikimedian User Group or any other affiliates. Please share the link to the notification on the WUGN discussion page(I wouldnt have submitted my proposal if I saw one). In addition, please take your time to check the history of both pages(page1 vs page2)and see which was created earlier. You could do the same for the grants proposal. Why create a new page when a similar one is existing? Why create a new grant when a similar one was created and submitted? From my experience in working with indigenous languages on incubator and my record with the Nigerian Pidgin on incubator, I believe my team is better poised and prepared to make the Nigerian pidgin a success. The entire community and individuals are welcome to support us and let's make this a success. Please let the grantee for the project reach out to me rather than subtly swinging the review of my grant proposal in your favour. Regards.--Samatics (talk) 10:38, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

Samatics. Kindly note that the grant request linked above was not attributed to any Nigerian Wikimedia User Groups. We were referring to Naijá Wikimedians User Group endorsed by members of the Wikimedia community in Nigeria. On the 4th of October 2021, User:T Cells notified the Wikimedia Nigeria community which comprises all members of the Wikimedia affiliates in Nigeria (Wikimedia Nigeria Foundation Inc., Igbo Wikimedians User Group , Yoruba Wikimedians User Group, and Igbo Wikimedians User Group ) via the WhatsApp group requesting support for the Naijá language Wikipedia in incubator and there was a consensus among members to provide support for the project and a total of 36 experienced members joined the group. Unfortunately, neither the executive of Wikimedia Nigeria nor the affiliate community members in Nigeria received a notification from you or invitation to join your group. Kindly note that Wikimedia Nigeria doesn’t have a preference for any individual or project. Our mission is to promote Wikimedia projects, advance open knowledge and provide support for individual contributors or groups. We only learnt about your grant today during our routine review of Talk:Wikimedia User Group Nigeria. The Nigerian Pidgin Wikimedians User Group you mentioned was not linked to your grant proposal. We are just learning about the meta page from the discussion here today. Perhaps you planned to make it a "closed group".While individuals are encouraged to work on any Wikimedia projects including projects in the incubators, no individuals own any Wikimedia project on the basis of their editing history.---Wikimedia Nigeria (talk) 12:43, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

Wikimedia Nigeria. You have not addressed my question. Where is is the post for notification for the event on WUGN discussion page. I understand that the grantee has posted a notification in the past. Why not this? I posted a notification there. As for the Nigerian Pidgin User Group, I can not see where it was a requirement to post a notification for this as User:T Cells did not post a notification on the same discussion page. Is this not double standard? I have not pinged the grantee here but the grantee has rushed to paste a notifcation high above other notification after pointing to this. Is this statement not obvious: "Please let the grantee for the project reach out to me rather than subtly swinging the review of my grant proposal in your favour"? As for a "closed group", let the facts be the judge.----Samatics (talk) 13:21, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

"While individuals are encouraged to work on any Wikimedia projects including projects in the incubators, no individuals own any Wikimedia project on the basis of their editing history" I have not pointed to this anywhere as I did not post anything on the grantee's page to discourage him/her moving further with the his/her proposal. Let the reviewer(s) be the judge of this.--Samatics (talk) 13:34, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

"The Nigerian Pidgin Wikimedians User Group you mentioned was not linked to your grant proposal" please read my proposal under Activities to see a link to this.--Samatics (talk) 13:46, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

@Wikimedia Nigeria, I understand that the supposed "routine check" you did today was for the first time as I have not seen any signed comment on the Discussion page by you here. In your effort to buttress your claim, you carried out the check and commented on this here but failed to comment on the same issue here when the user did not give a link then. I would appreciate if you could sincerely appreciate my effort and be neutral in your assessment of this situation. Regards.--Samatics (talk) 16:46, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

Comment from T Cells

Thanks for the ping, Wikimedia Nigeria. Here is the background. On the 3rd of October 2021, Aaharoni-WMF, a language strategist at the WMF contacted me about the Naijá language Wikipedia in the incubator (en:Nigerian pidgin). He wanted to configure it on translatewiki and he needed to have the name of the language, written in that language. The "Nigerian pidgin" itself is in "English" and the naming and interface configuration must be done in that language and not in "English". Amir needed to check with me as a native speaker of the language and as someone who has discussed the possibility of having a Wikipedia in Naijá language with him, many years ago. So, I was excited that Amir would be doing the configuration in translatewiki and I quickly discussed the idea of building a community that would focus on growing and developing the project with him. Following our meeting, I designed the meta page and discuss the idea using the WhatsApp group of members of Wikimedia affiliate communities in Nigeria who will practically drive the project as all Wikipedia projects (including those in the incubators) are community-driven. User:Oludegun and User:Mrnyben1313 volunteers to lead and serve as contact persons(s) for the newly proposed group. Best regards. T Cells^Talk 14:08, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

Hello User:T Cells, thank you for your work. I am glad you could identify yourself as the creator of the alternate group. Please read the request and activation [pcm_Activate_new_language:_Nigerian_Pidgin_-_'Naij%C3%A1'_59622 here]. See where the name(s) was suggested in the request and note the dates. We would appreciate if you could encourage both users User:Oludegun and User:Mrnyben1313 to start contributing to the project on incubator and translatewiki as I am yet to see any activity by them. I strongly believe one shouldn't wait for a grant proposal before you start contributing to such project. Please let them reach out to me if any assistance is needed. Best regards.--Samatics (talk) 14:47, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

User:T Cells. Could you please explain why User:Mrnyben1313 was not part of the grant proposal? Since he volunteered to be a contact person. I am sure that you know as an experienced editor that he is not yet qualified to be a contact person for the alternate group. Thanks----Samatics (talk) 14:59, 7 October 2021 (UTC)