Incubator:Policy

This is an official Incubator policy. This page has been elaborated and approved by the community and its compliance is mandatory for all users. You may edit it, but please discuss major changes on the talk page first.

This is the policy of Incubator.

You can find other parts on:

• Incubator:Policy/Test wiki info page (see #Marking test languages)
• Incubator:Requests for deletions (see #Closure or deletion)
• Incubator:Administrators (see #Administrators)

What Wikimedia Incubator hosts

• The Wikimedia Incubator hosts tests of new language editions of the following Wikimedia projects:
  • Wikipedia (prefix "Wp/")
  • Wiktionary (prefix "Wt/")
  • Wikiquote (prefix "Wq/")
  • Wikibooks (prefix "Wb/")
  • Wikinews (prefix "Wn/")
  • Wikivoyage (prefix "Wy/")
• Incubator does not host a test project that is not in the list above (i.e., the proposals on meta:Proposals for new projects).
• The following Wikimedia projects have to be made somewhere else:
  • Wikiversity, go to Beta Wikiversity (does not use prefixes)
  • Wikisource, go to Old Wikisource (does not use prefixes)

Starting a new test language

See Help:Manual for more information.

• You can start a test language of the projects mentioned above, regardless of whether you have a request at Meta, though it is recommended to ask first for confirmation through the page Incubator:Requests for starting a test. It is not required to have a proposal at Meta, but without one, your test will not be able to get its own wiki.
• Create a test project only if you actually know the language or if you are doing this on behalf of a specific person who does.
• You have to do the following:
  • After confirmation at Incubator:Requests for starting a test, you will probably have a page Project/code with an information template on it. Otherwise, create it using {{test wiki}}.
  • Create a main page, with an article name consisting of just the prefix: Project/code/Main_Page.
  • Project/code/Main_Page means:
    • Project: see #What Wikimedia Incubator hosts
    • Code: a valid ISO 639 code. An ISO 639-1 code, if it doesn't exist, an ISO 639-3 code.
    • Main Page: the word "Main Page" in your language. To make linking easier, it is recommended to be the same as the MediaWiki message "mainpage" (translatable at Translatewiki.net).
  • List the test on Template:Tests.
• Projects must match main m:WM:LPP requirements: the project must not already exist, and it must be in a unique language that has a valid language code.

Closure or deletion

Common reasons for test deletion

• If a test does not have a valid ISO 639 language code, it should be deleted.
• There are no pages at all, other than the main page.
• The pages are not actually written in the claimed language. This includes pages that purport to be in that language, but are written by people who don't know the language well.
• You may only propose a deletion of a test language that does not have a proposal on Meta or is rejected by the Langcom.
  • If it is rejected, the test can be kept for future proposals when the requirements are fulfilled (if this is possible), or else it should be proposed for deletion.
• If a project is given final approval, the test's pages will be imported to the new subdomain wiki. All pages should be deleted, except the info page, where a notice will be added (see Incubator:Policy/Test wiki info page for further information).

Test deletion procedure

• Propose it on Incubator:Requests for deletions
  • Further instructions are given there
• If needed, an XML file must be exported (needed means: if the test is not vandalism or nonsense—in general, use common sense)
• If requested, it can be exported to Incubator Plus

While on Incubator

Nomenclature

• All article pages in a test have a prefix of the form "project/langcode/", for example "wp/en/" for English Wikipedia.
• Images cannot be uploaded to Incubator; they must be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. (Note that this means that uploading is disabled.)
• Templates and categories must be prefixed as the articles.
• All test languages will be marked with a template as explained on Incubator:Policy/Test wiki info page.
• Don't write in languages that you don't actually know. This includes both Incubator content pages and translatable pages, such as help pages, policy pages, templates, etc. Don't use machine translation, automatic transliteration, copying words from dictionaries or textbooks, copying sentences from other articles and changing some words, etc.
  • Even if you have good intentions to help language development and preservation, contributing in languages that you don't know is more harmful than helpful. Make edits to pages in languages that you don't actually know only if you are working directly with people who do know the language, but cannot make such edits themselves for technical reasons. If you don't know such people, find them first.

Test Admins

• While the content is being developed on the Incubator, you may apply for test adminship. This gives you a few admin rights (to delete and to block users) on your test.

See Incubator:Administrators#Test-administrators for the policy of this.

Marking test languages

• There are different templates that are used on the info pages in order to mark the status of the test wikis. You can find all the information at Incubator:Policy/Test wiki info page.

Administrators

You can find the policy about administrators, bureaucrats, etc. on Incubator:Administrators.

User behaviour

• If there is sufficient reason to (e.g., vandalism), a user technically able to block may block a user for any timespan appropriate for the action.
• Users are not allowed to use multiple accounts, unless it is a bot or otherwise explicitly stated to be used for a specific purpose.

Usage of namespaces

Main (+ talk)	only for test wikis, all pages must be prefixed
Template	all templates must be prefixed, except a few templates that are used for general Incubator purposes (like Template:Policy)
Module	all modules must be prefixed, except a few templates that are used for general Incubator purposes (like Module:Test wikis)
Category	all categories must be prefixed, except a few categories that are used for general Incubator purposes (like Category:Maintenance:(all))
Incubator/Help	only for general Incubator purposes (like this page) To create a project or help page for your test, put the namespace after the prefix. The page will then technically be in main here, but will be put in the correct location when your project is approved and created.
File	no local files, only via Wikimedia Commons
Translations	used by the Translate extension to store translations.

See also

• Requests for new languages
• Language proposal policy