(WT-nl) Evan

Hi Evan, as you can see I have done a little bit of work over the last couple of weeks. I'd like to think of myself more as a traveler than an administrator, but the gaps in the admin were really annoying. Today I finally came around to translating en:Project:Language version policy and was shocked to learn that the site is actually still up and running. By the wiki rules the site should have been closed a while ago. It seems like you haven't been around for some weeks either?! What's the deal here? Is there still a liaison? How can we get it up and running again, because it looks like we are in dire need of a re-start. {(WT-nl) 3wisemen 12 mrt 2007 11:36 (EDT)}

Hi, 3WM! I'm really glad to see how active you've been here. Yes, I have been travelling over the last couple of weeks.

Although theoretically inactive wikis should be removed, I've grown too attached to nl: and some of our other wikis to get rid of them. And Dutch is too important a language for us not to have a wiki in it!

To get the wiki jump-started, I think we need a few things. First, more project pages translated; it seems like you've been doing a good job with that. Second, more "outline" pages for the geographical hierarchy -- countries, continents, major cities. Third, we need more users: contacting Dutch bloggers, Dutch Wikipedia, or Dutch-language travel forums might be a great way to get more contributors. Fourth, it'd be great to get some active administrators here. Do you think you'd be willing to do that job for a while? And what about Washy? We also need an active liaison, which we haven't had for a while. Finally, and most importantly, is consistency and continuity. Having an active community that participates on a regular basis is the best way to keep new users who come in.

Let me know if you have any more questions or if there's anything I can do to help out with growing this wiki up into the kind of travel resource it should be. --(WT-nl) Evan 14 mrt 2007 11:15 (EDT)

From Washy

Evan: Question : what about the long term view of Wikivoyage? How can we survive on financial basis (we have to pay the webspace and the servers I guess? How is the structure of wikivoyage human resources?

I love to write about travelling and a free and open travel source for everybody is really what I want. I believe also in the "snowball" effect, once there are many good articles, more people start reading, get involved and start believing in the wikivoyage and start writing also.

On the english wikivoyage there are some star articles that are really very very good. We should write some on the dutch version also.

• administrator is also okay for me, 3wisemen can do the administrator and the liason :-). I'm indeed very enthousiastic and looking forward to the milestone of 1000 articles! Administrators are necessary to do the maintenance of wikivoyage and be a watchdog for vandalism, to motivate people and to write a lot and to react on edit wars. :-).

--> I'm now known as user : canshun

• Evan thanks for the administrator rights, I will use it with responsability.

Welcome

[en] Hi Evan, thanks for welcome and your compliments to me. I do my best to make wikivoyage (nl) to an interesting site with much information. At first I made frames of many countries and cities so that I and other people can start with it. Later I'll give the pages step by step some more info and uploaded pictures and images. At least I feel responsible for many articles and I want to ask you if I can upgrade myself in each way for example, some tasks I'm responsible for. But it looks like I'm almost the only person who is on wikivoyage (nl) and working on it, how is that possible ? Do you have tips & trucs for me and can you maybe give me some more advice about how to work on wikivoyage ? If you want I can help and learn you step by step with the Dutch language. Also I want to translate articles and other stuff into Dutch if you teel me which. Thank you very much, with kind regards, (WT-nl) Pediant 7 jul 2006 06:52 (EDT)

[nl] Hi Evan, bedankt voor je welkom en je complimenten naar mij. Ik doe mijn best om wikivoyage tot een interessante site te maken met veel infomartie. Ten eerste heb ik geraamtes gamaakt van veel landen en steden zodat ik en andere mensen ermee verder kunnen gaan. Beetje by beetje voeg ik meer info en geuploade bestanden toe aan de pagina's. Ik voel me verantwoordelijk voor veel artikelen en ik wil je vragen of ik verantwoordelijkheid kan krijgen en verschillende taken op mij kan nemen. Maar het lijkt alsof ik bijna de enige persoon ben op wikivoyage (nl) en er aan werk, hoe is dat mogelijk ? Heb je tips & trucs voor mij en zou je mij misschien informatie willen geven hoe op wikivoyage te werk te gaan. ALs je wilt kan ik je stap voor stap helpen en leren met de Nederlandse taal. Tevens ben ik bereid om artikelen en andere soorten naar het Nederlands te vertalen als je me verteld wat & hoe. Hartelijk dank en de vriendelijke groeten, (WT-nl) Pediant 7 jul 2006 06:52 (EDT)

NL Wikivoyage

Hi Evan, funny. You replied pretty much the moment I decided to sens an email to Maj too, in order to see if anyone was alive at the Wikivoyage project. For now I am happy to hear there is still hope for this project.

I have been a project manager in ICT for quite a few years now, so I guess the liaison role could be something for me. However, I have got no idea how much time would be involved. I guess that somewhere this year I'll have to start to work again to pay for the next big trips. Also I wouldn't mind the admin job for a while. I am more worried about the 'marketing' of it. As you know the Dutch all claim to speak English. This means finding translators shouldn't be a problem, but why would they do that if they can read the English site anyway?! The chicken and the egg I guess. Anyway I am willing to lay a (Dutch) egg. So I'll keep going. Let me know if you want me to do something extra. I'll also contact my friends and forum networks to do a little extra promotion. One question I asked Maj for example, was if there are any visitor statistics available?

I don't really know Washy, but he seems very happy and enthusiastic. What I like about him is that he is Flemish, which means that he and I have different perspectives on the language and sometimes even the content. He is also really looking for technical solutions to improve the output. So who knows?!

Thanx for your reply,

{(WT-nl) 3 Wise Men 14 mrt 2007 12:11 (EDT)}

Maj forwarded your email to me; that's how I knew I had to come in here! Wikivoyage as a whole is extremely healthy, but nl: needs some help. I'm glad you've been working on it.

The job of liaison is simple: each month, you make a report on Wikivoyage Shared: about what's going on with the project. In some language versions, this report is written wiki-style, so it's even easier.

Visitor statistics are here: http://wikivoyage.org/webalizer/web/ . We don't break down the different language versions. You can also get some info from Alexa: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main?q=&url=wikivoyage.org/ .

I think that the great fluency in English for Dutch speakers is great. It means that a lot of the travel information needed here can be translated from the English version. Why translate it at all? Because Dutch people deserve a free, open-source travel guide in their own language. Dutch is an important world language, and Dutch-speaking people should have reference materials of all kinds -- including travel guides -- in Dutch. --(WT-nl) Evan 14 mrt 2007 23:32 (EDT)

Hi Evan, Sounds fine with me. If it's Ok with you, you and the Wikicommunity will get the first report in April. I agree with your view on the free guides and will think of ways to get more attention and especially more writers.

Happy travelz! {(WT-nl) 3 Wise Men 16 mrt 2007 04:12 (EDT)}

Admin / Sysop

Hi Evan,

No problem, as promised I will clean up, and sort out and translate the "Wikivoyage" pages. We'll keep you posted about the progress.

Happy travelzzzz, 3WM

Admin stop

Hello Evan,

you can remove the administrator privileges of (WT-nl) Domie, he hasn't been active since june 2006, that's more than one year. Like this it is more clear to all users who are the administrators and a list which is up-to-date is a sign of quality.