User talk:Oisteadman

Hi Oisteadman,

Generally, in this early stage of development of a Wiki, templates needn't be a major concern. Pages needn't be translated directly, and it's important to remember that this isn't en.wp. It would be a very difficult and time-consuming task to copy and translate even only the 100 or 1000 most used templates from en.wp, and is probably simply not worth the effort at this point in time. Better to translate the body of text, or write original text. Remember that in the entire history of Wikipedia in English, templates have proliferated more and more over time but that a long time ago, people got along just fine with few templates. For citing internet sources, you can use Wiki syntax for an external link, and number it (like this: [http://www.sourcewebsite.net/ 1]). For citing paper sources, do it like this: "(Author Name ####)" (where the numbers are the publication year), and then include a "works cited" section at the end of the article. All of the detailed infobox stuff that exists at en.wp isn't really necessary to get a Wikipedia up and running.

The key to a successful Wikipedia is writing or translating, and lots of it; templates will come with time. --Node ue 04:37, 23 uFebruwari 2012 (UTC)

Also note that translating the entire contents of every page on en.wp is not practical, at least not for a single person; it would take you pretty much until the end of time. Have a look at this - the Sh.wp version of "German people", and notice how much shorter it is than the English version. Is it an ideal situation? No, but surely the page will be improved over time, just like en.wp, and a focus on a greater diversity of topics allows for better attraction and retention of new editors than does a very small number of very detailed articles. --Node ue 04:42, 23 uFebruwari 2012 (UTC)

Hi Oisteadman. I completely agree with Node ue above. I would like to add one thing: if you want to help translate the site interface to Zulu, you can do so at translatewiki.net. For example a few tabs above this page are still in English, you can translate them to Zulu on that site. A translated interface is important for any language wiki. Regards, SPQRobin 14:52, 23 uFebruwari 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the encouragement and advice, I had realised it was quite impractical to carry on with the template work so am now focusing on content. Oisteadman 02:41, 24 uFebruwari 2012 (UTC)

Hello Ollie :) Just saw you were editing, so I want to thank you for all your work here! I was wondering how you would translate "population". Also: is there a difference between I-Ashiya and I-Eshiya? PiRSquared17 (talk) 00:35, 13 uMashi 2012 (UTC)

Hey! I have been using "Inani labantu" for population, literally meaning "the number of people". I-Eshiya is the correct translation for the continent Asia, although it seems iAshiya and i-Ashiya have been used frequently on some articles. I have made Redirect pages that lead to the correct page. iYurobha and i-Afrika are filling up with content, but we have very few articles about the countries of i-Eshiya, anything you can contribute would be welcome! Have you heard of Johnny Clegg and Juluka? --Oisteadman (talk) 00:42, 13 uMashi 2012 (UTC)

I hadn't heard of Juluka before reading your blog. (found from google) I think we can save zu.wikipedia if we get more content/editors. By the way: Do you think something like "Imathemathiki wuphenyo ngamanana." is bad grammar? PiRSquared17 (talk) 00:51, 13 uMashi 2012 (UTC)

I think this might be better: "Imathemathiki wuphenyo wezibalo." I'm afraid I am based in Oxford UK where there are very few Zulu speakers, so can't find anyone to help with the wikipedia. That's why I wrote the blog on my band's website, because I think more people will find out and help. Do you know many Zulu speakers? O --Oisteadman (talk) 01:01, 13 uMashi 2012 (UTC)

How would you translate "references"? I can find "imithombo" and "izindabuko", but I'm not sure what the best word is. πr² (ingxoxo • iminikelo) 03:38, 14 uMashi 2012 (UTC)

I think imithombo would be perfect, great work on all those country infoboxes by the way. --Oisteadman (talk) 09:58, 14 uMashi 2012 (UTC)

Hey, I saw you were editing again. Do you think Category:Izwe (singular) or Category:Amazwe (plural) is better? We have some articles in both. πr² (ingxoxo • iminikelo) 00:02, 22 uMashi 2012 (UTC)

I think Category:Amazwe based on looking at other Wikis. Quite a task to go through and change all the Izwe's to Amazwe's but worth it. Here's a great Zulu news resource if you're interested: http://isizulu.news24.com/NingizimuAfrika --Oisteadman (talk) 00:05, 22 uMashi 2012 (UTC)

Can you confirm that Category:Amaze eAfrika and the pages in it should be in Category:Amazwe eAfrika? πr² (ingxoxo • iminikelo) 18:40, 14 u-Apreli 2012 (UTC)

• yep, that looks like a typo replicated in error. Well spotted... --Oisteadman (talk) 19:46, 14 u-Apreli 2012 (UTC)
  • All are renamed with the little help of my bot Carsrac (talk) 00:03, 15 u-Apreli 2012 (UTC)

Don't you tired of creation of pages without any content? You speak Zulu good, what is stopping you? It's higher risk that your articles will be deleted. Regards,--Midnight Green (talk) 19:16, 17 uMashi 2012 (UTC)

I agree that the creation of empty pages does not help the Wikipedia. Stubs can be helpful, but pages with 0 content, or just a picture, or all content in English, will not help much at all. --Node ue (talk) 02:30, 18 uMashi 2012 (UTC)

Sure thing. I think it's important to try have complete pages with as few red links as possible, so end up creating many articles quickly but perhaps don't give quite enough attention to them, leaving them with too little content. Will try to avoid this from now on. --Oisteadman (talk) 03:04, 18 uMashi 2012 (UTC)

PiR asked me to add HotCat as a gadget here, which I've done. Feel free to poke for any further addition or if you need any help. Snowolf ^{How can I help?} 01:49, 22 uMashi 2012 (UTC)

• Thanks it works perfectly, going to make saving this Wiki a lot more plausible! The other thing that I've wondered about is... when we create a Zulu article here, e.g. Main Page, how do we get it to automatically appear on the equivalent article in French, English, and other languages? I think this requires a bot but I have no experience of that side of things. --Oisteadman (talk) 09:47, 22 uMashi 2012 (UTC)

  Maybe one of the things listed at m:Help:Interwiki links will explain that. Usually you need to wither have a bot patrolling zuwiki or add it to a wiki where interwiki bots already work (e.g., English WP), then the bot will do the rest. πr² (ingxoxo • iminikelo) 20:13, 28 uMashi 2012 (UTC)

Hi Oisteadman. I wanted to congradtulate you on a job well done in keeping this wikipedia alive!! I am working on a Xitsonga Wikipedia and am battling to attract editors there too, so I feel you frustration. Say are you South African? are you based in SA?? I am South African and am based in Gauteng. I am planning to mobilize South African wikimedians for an Imbizo I have in mind this year. drop me a line on thuvack@gmail.com if you are interested. --Thuvack (talk) 14:43, 29 uMashi 2012 (UTC)

Bitteschön

http://www.greenman.co.za/blog/?p=953

Hi, what is the correct spelling. Could you please be so kind or to tell which on is the correct one. You may also merge the two into one article. It is possible that the two articles are about two different parts of the world, but that is very unlikely. Carsrac (talk) 22:19, 19 u-Apreli 2012 (UTC)

• Let's go for i-Antatika - I'll do that now. I'm using [www.isizulu.net] as my guide where possible, as the Wiktionary is quite limited. --Oisteadman (talk) 07:39, 20 u-Apreli 2012 (UTC)

Head's up, Oisteadman! It seems the Zulu Wikipedia has only sparse categories, but it's a place to topically identify existing articles that need work - or important articles uncategorized or missing. The Category:AbAfrika baseningizimu here is parallel to the English Wikipedia's top level w:Category:South African people. Might you be interested in improving any of these biographical articles by translating content? I believe references from other languages can simply be copied - and on the Talk page add a remark (or is there a Template?) saying from which source article you translated the new content. As I get familiar with the material, my objective is to create pages with Infoboxes for important public figures and add them to the category. Watch for my updates! Cheers, -- Deborahjay (talk) 16:32, 31 uNtulikazi 2017 (UTC)[reply]