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> Wehr, who now teaches Greenlandic in Denmark, speculates that perhaps only one or two Greenlanders had ever contributed.

That's the core issue, it's not those who use AI translator or worst like Google translate. If there isn't any Greenlander to contribute to their Wikipedia, they don't deserve to have one and instead must rely on other languages.

The difference between an empty Wikipedia and one filled with translated articles that contains error isn't much. They should instead close that version of Wikipedia until there are enough volunteers.


"Only one or two" isn't zero. The problem isn't that a small community can only write a small Wikipedia, but that there's a global supply of fools who want to make every small Wikipedia bigger, even if they're completely unqualified to do so.

Wikipedia is built around the basic principle that if you just let everyone contribute, most contributions will be helpful and you can just revert the bad ones after the fact. This works for large communities that easily outnumber the global supply of fools, but below a certain size threshold, the sign flips and the average edit makes that version of Wikipedia worse rather than better.

So smaller communities probably need to flip the operating principle of Wikipedia on its head and limit new users to only creating drafts, on the assumption that most will be useless, and an admin can accept the good ones after the fact.

I'm not sure whether Wikipedia already has the software features necessary to operate it in such a closed-by-default manner.

> a small community can only write a small Wikipedia

For whom?

For people who couldn't write that article themselves, but would like to read it if it existed. Same as big Wikipedias, just on a smaller scale.
It is worse. Imagine if you were trying to learn English from this phrasebook, written by someone who didn't speak English:

https://www.exclassics.com/espoke/espkpdf.pdf

Wikipedia is prominent. Wikipedia articles in a language without much representation become prime examples of that language to those who read them.

The end of the article says they have closed it.
> they don't deserve to have one

By what unholy pact have you been beknighted as the bestower of wikis, my friend?

If the original authors stop maintaining an OSS project, and you are one of only a very few users, you have two options: do the work yourself, or watch it die. If you are unwilling to do the work yourself, then that's a signal it isn't important enough for anyone else to do the work either.

Why should a wiki be any different?

The question still stands.
Not the commenter but in this instance it seems like if you want something you need to either be able make/maintain it or fund someone who will, no?
That last part creates a chicken and egg problem. You can argue about it but I will bet it will never get traction if there is no basis to start from.
Wikipedia has an "incubator" setup where people can start working on a language in the incubator until it demonstrates enough interest.
> who use AI translator or worst like Google translate

It's the same. Google translate uses trained AI models.

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