Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2020-05-31/On the bright side
500,000 articles in the Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia
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A view from Cairo Tower in 2007 -
The City of Damanhur at night -
The Rosetta Stone -
An aerial view of the Giza pyramid complex
Introduction
This month there is less content in "On the bright side" due to Pine's time constraints and Clovermoss being away. However, there is good news happening in the Wikiverse, and one piece of good news is that Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia reached the 500,000 article milestone. For this issue of "On the bright side", Pine interviewed Ghaly, who has made almost 30,000 contributions to the project and is an administrator.
Interview
Congratulations for reaching 500,000 articles on Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia. Which was the milestone article, and who created it?
ميك رينزى created by Al-Dandoon on 11 May 2020.
(Interviewer's note: the Al-Dandoon account was later globally locked; see meta:Special:Contributions/Al-Dandoon.)
I think that many people around the world know of the Arabic language, but may not know of Egyptian Arabic. Would you briefly describe Egyptian Arabic?
Egyptian Arabic (Masri) is the mother tongue of millions of Egyptians. It developed as a later stage of the Egyptian language. Its grammar is based on its Egyptian origin, and it is written mainly in Arabic letters. Masri is used in literature, television, films, theatre, and day-to-day activities.
If you can, please describe the early history of Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia. When did it start, who started it, and how were its first few years of history?
I submitted the proposal to the Language committee on 30 March 2008, then started Wikipedia Masri as a developing project on 2 April 2008 in the incubator. The approval was officially announced at the Wikimania conference in Alexandria in July 2008. By the time Wikipedia Masri URL started in November 2008, there were many articles in the incubator. All of them were transferred to the new URL.
A community continued to develop, and active users were encouraged to contribute in their preferred field. The number of articles continued to grow, especially by contributions from Mahmudmasri, Samsam22 and Ramsis II. Many of the debates were about writing in Masri and keeping the articles neutral. These were mostly addressed amicably within the community. Contributions from Raafat, Meno25, M777, حمدى10 and El Gaafary helped to further develop Wikipedia Masri. Relatively, the development of Wikipedia Masri was gathering pace from the start, helped by the amicable interaction between the active users. Recently HitomiAkane and Al-Dandoon have added many more articles to Wikipedia Masri, which enabled reaching the half million milestone.
How significant are the contributions of Wikipedia Education Program students to Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia?
I am not aware of contributions made by Wikipedia Education Program students to Egyptian Arabic (Masri) Wikipedia. I will be happy to discuss this further if you can point them out.
How would you describe the people who currently contribute to Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia?
From my point of view, I have always enjoyed being a member of this community and still do. The users are all volunteers who give their time, effort, and knowledge to develop a Masri encyclopaedia. Their aim is to provide information in a language that is used in day-to-day life, to make this information understood by many more people. Their efforts, enthusiasm and dedication never fail to amaze me. Their polite manner in addressing each other always humbles me. I am immensely proud to be part of this community.
Are there any significant challenges or goals that the community of contributors has in the next few years?
Continuing to develop Wikipedia Masri is a never-ending work. The active users are aiming to increase quality and numbers of articles. Reaching another milestone will be the millionth article. The community is hoping to reach many more users and encourage them to contribute.
There are people from many nations who contribute to diverse language editions of Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects, and who will read this interview. Is there any message that you would like to share with them?
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please consider adding your knowledge to Wikipedia. It is beyond words to describe the sense of achievement and pride when I see my contributions included in articles in my mother tongue. Choose the topic that interests you and contribute in your own pace.
Your turn
For what are you grateful this month? You are welcome to write a comment on the talk page of this Signpost piece.
Discuss this story
and thinking "What a helluva number of articles compared to meager 6 millions on English Wikipedia!! Only recalling a bit later that I have section numbering turned on :-) Staszek Lem (talk) 06:14, 1 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]