Help talk:How to start a new Wikipedia/Archive before 2018

(Very old discussions)

Please see Page history at the English Wikipedia for attribution of authors prior to 4 April 2004.

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There is discussion related to this page at the English Wikipedia. See en:Wikipedia talk:Create a new language in Wikipedia.

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This page still includes a reference to Intlwiki-l, a now defunct list. But I forgot where the place was to ask for a new wikipedia. Foundation-l? Wikipedia-l? Wikitech-l? Another page on meta? Hope someone could update. Tomos 20:06, 1 May 2004 (UTC)

Probably either Wikipedia-l, or Wikitech-l. Dori | Talk 20:16, 1 May 2004 (UTC)

Thanks. I wanted that info. also for a related page on japanese wikipedia. :) Tomos 20:49, 1 May 2004 (UTC)

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Starting a new community, or sub-community can be an important part of the Wikipedia culture. Within one of the mainstream Wikipedias there will gradually evolve a sense of community, yet there may be scope for sub-communities, which may eventually break off to form their own new community.

An example might be the native American communities in the USA, including Pueblo and Navajo indian speakers. There are active programmes in the US which encourage students to participate in activities using the languages of their forefathers.

It would not be unreasonable, in the first instance, for such students, and their teachers, to create references to objects described in their own languages in the main English Wikipedia. This way they could use all the features of the larger system, without having to start up and maintain their own software, and to have a separate system.

As time moves on, there is the possibility that a sufficiently large community of such users might be built up, and at that time it would be reasonable, if resources permitted, to migrate articles from the English Wikipedia to other new language Wikipedias. Whether a decision would then be made to remove articles from the English version would depend on usage. There could be a case for retaining all or some articles, or reformatting articles to be of interest to a wider audience, with cross links to articles in the newly formed Wikipedias. -- 195.137.39.195 11:38, 25 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Excellent version! --68.215.241.86 14:08, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Stuck on the main page

The 'set up a main page' section seems a bit insufficient and confusing -- # 3.1 Set Main Page -- am trying to do something for Konkani (kok). -- 59.95.18.88 19:02, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Sardu

I would to create a wikipedia section whit sardu lenguage ( sardinian lenguage), i read the guidelines and i build the home page, then i traduce the guidelines to traduce in my lenguage. But i have a problem how can i insert a section in leguages linst, i must to modify the lenguages list or i tell you when i finish to traduce and you add my lenguages ?--Socrate04 17:13, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Now i traduce in sardu (sardinin lenguage) the page, when i finish i tell you that i have complete the traduction.--Socrate04 17:13, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)

How to update Language.php?

Is there any way to replace Language.php file on existing Wikipedia by administrator? Belarusian Wikipedia already heavily rely on English for namespaces. I want to replace them with Belarusian ones step by step (Template, Image, Category). And I want to do so myself to have possibility of revert to previous version. Thank you for advice. Please write me on be:User:EugeneZelenko or en:User:EugeneZelenko.

Best to update the LanguageXX.php file here on meta and then report it "a bug" at http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/ Guaka 23:50, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)

translating keywords

Hi,

I have partially translated the system messages for the GD wikipedia, but am wondering now, how I go about translating the keywords used in articles (such as "category" and "image"). Is this done by modiying the php file? Sorry for posting this question here - I couldn't find any documentation explicitly addressing this. Eoghan 20:55, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Elvish languages

I've noticed that Wikipedia has a Klingon Wikipedia. Can someone make an Elvish Wikipedia? I know that two elven languages (Eldar and Sindarin) were created by J.R.R. Tolkien. They are much more complex and completed than Klingon. I would create an Elvish Wikipedia myself, but I do not know the two languages.--JarlaxleArtemis 03:28, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC)

That would be EXCELLENT!! Cjinaz 17:00, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Box to insert special characters

I'd like to add a box to insert special characters during editing. How to do that? It would be cool to have this information added to this article. Guaka 23:50, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)

My own language

Can it be my own, artificial language? mikiapole3 17:14, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Anybody have an answer to this? I'm rather curious myself. I'd vote in favor of yes if only because many artificial languages do have communities of speakers. Via the internet I have connection with two other conlangers, one of whom has a language with a small community of speakers.

Of course, one could make the argument that there is no reason to use conlangs when plenty of real languages are in need of attention. Could counter that with the point that conlags are often easy to learn than natural languages (fewer irregulars, more logical syntax) and thus more attractive to some.

Regardless, I think a good point could be made for auxlangs, such as the Simple Wikipedia.

But I muse, I vote in favor of allowing it. If the conlang has no speakers it'll make itself apparent. Since I have no authority whatsoever though. . . --Quintucket(on Wikipedia { I think I have a Wikimedia account but I've never used it}) 10:41 24 March 2005 (EST)

Plat-Haags

Can I start a Wikipedia in Plat-Haags?

Simple Japanese

I would like to start a wikipedia in simple japanese, that is to say, like simple english, easy to understand to foreigners. simple japanese would use romaji exclusively instead of katakana, hiragana and kanji. it could be choroi.wikipedia.org as choroi means simple (I think) in japanese. --172.164.147.201 08:33, 5 November 2005 (UTC) TBH from en.wikipedia.org

• Hello TBH! Wikipedias in new languages can be requested at Requests for new languages. (However, the community is currently for the most part not in favor of creating more "simple" editions and there is even talk of closing down the Simple English Wikipedia) Arbeo 14:34, 6 November 2005 (UTC)
• Hi! When I saw the headline, it interested me. However, I thought you were talking about a Wikipedia purely made up of furigana, rather than including any kanji. Nevertheless, I agree with what you're saying, and I think both a Furigana (フリガナ) version and a Rōmaji version of Wikipedia should exist.

Sindhi

Hi, My name is Ali Hassan and I want to start a sindhi wikipedia. I have read the set up language information but I have a problem. The thing is one already exists but in Devanagri alphabet. I want to create mine for the people that use the Arabic alphabet for Sindhi. I do not want to create a joint devanagri/arabic site as that would be useless and irritating. Kashmiri and Punjabi currently use two alphabets and its very frustrating to click on an article and to recieve it in an alphabet that you do not understand. I want to start a seperate Sindhi Wikipedia but as there is already a Sindhi page I am confused as to what to do. Can we have both Wikipedia's called Sindhi and then have the name in the appropriate alphabet written behind it? As they are both legitimate forms of the language I cannot think of a fairer way to handle this but any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Wikipedia in Odd Languages

Did you know that google has wierd languages that you can view the page in, for example, Pig Latin, Elmer Fudd, and "Bork! Bork! Bork!" You think we might want to make wikipedias in some of these languages for entertainment only? After all, google does it.

Developer Attention?

The language Wikipedia process seems to have broken down somewhat—there is a queue of languages approved and waiting to be made at Approved requests for new languages (and there has been for some time), but no Developer has come around at all. About a dozen languages have been approved for creation, and the Norman test-Wiki has well over 100 articles already (more than nearly half of our "real" Wikipedias—and over 85% of the Norman articles have accompanying illustrations). How can we get these Wikipedias created? Jade Knight 06:09, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

This was taken care of, with much appreciation (the Norman Wikipedia now has nearly 300 articles). The Jade Knight 08:59, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

French translation / Traduction en français

Could we get someone to translate this page into French?

Est-ce qu'il y a quelqu'un qui peut traduire cette page en français? The Jade Knight 09:00, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

Nearly complete version of this page in French here. It'll be moved as soon as it is done. --Keitei 07:23, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

How to start a wiki for something other than a language

I want to start a wikipedia for open source collegiate related projects. I'm sort of starting it already particular domain [here] but I really would like to get it on [wikiversity.com] but it is "taken" by the wikimedia foundation. Would it be possible to start a wiki there?

One important thing for this wiki is to allow lots of different kinds of file uploads, so maintaining that would be a pain, but it's kind of neccessary to accomplish the goal... Mines only starting and I have to go in there and put in new file types to allow for the images every time a new type of program is used by the engineering dept at my school, (ex .vi for LabView).

Wikipedia in Latin or Classic Greek

See above. I think that this would be rather funny. I am a classics student and I always get annoyed with people who say that there is no reason to learn Classic Greek or Latin. But if we create a Wikipedia in one of these languages and put stuff in it, all classics students can hold stuff over the heads of people who don't take these language. Mwa ha ha ha ha ha...

Uh... there already is one. http://la.wikipedia.org/ – Gurch 14:26, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

• The reason Wikimedia has "taken" that domain name is because that is what our new project for open-source learning materials, Wikiversity, is called. The URL just doesn't redirect to wikiversity.org yet. Your website's materials would seem to be a perfect fit for Wikiversity, would you consider working on the Engineering School? --Kwekubo 19:22, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Pinyin Wikipedia?

I don't speak any Mandarin, heck, I'm not even Chinese, but I'm just making a suggestion. I think a Pinyin Wikipedia would be a great idea. What about you?

Translating the namespace names

How are namespace names like Talk:, User: etc being localised? Not through Special:Allmessages, as I suppose? --Johannes Rohr 18:04, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

They are also in the file like [1].--Patrick 03:55, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Help:How_to_start_a_new_Wikipedia#Translate_the_interface

To translate the interface you must prepare a file languages/Messageslanguagecode.php with system messages, namespace names, and a few other things

Two questions that need to be answered would be: Where do I get it? And, when I'm done, where do I send it? --Johannes Rohr 22:17, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

I have added that, as far as I know it.--Patrick 03:56, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Question?

how could i start an english wikipedia but called EntoWiki regarding Entomology? Bjaco18 20:56, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

You could create your own wiki site. There are several free wikis - a list is here. Or you could make and host one yourself. You might like MediaWiki, which is what Wikimedia is powered by. Majorly ^talk 21:06, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

Getic Language

i want to add the Getic language (limba dxetq) to Wikipedia. Can someone help me?

You can find more information about the Getic language at the following links:

[2]

[3]

Please see the instructions at Language subcommittee/Handbook (requesters) if you think this language meets the Language proposal policy. Angela 12:18, 22 December 2008 (UTC)