Latvian Wikipedia Explained

Logo Alt:Logo of the
Collapsible:yes
Commercial:No
Type:Online encyclopedia
Registration:Optional
Language:Latvian
Num Users: registered accounts
2,192 contributors (Dec 2018)
administrators
Content License:
Most text also dual-licensed under GFDL. Media licensing varies.
Owner:Wikimedia Foundation

The Latvian Wikipedia (Latvian: Vikipēdija latviešu valodā in Latvian pronounced as /ˈvikipɜːdija/) is the Latvian-language edition of the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia. It was created on 6 June 2003.[1] [2] [3] With more than articles, it is currently the -largest Wikipedia as measured by the number of articles[4] and the second-largest Wikipedia in a Baltic language after the Lithuanian Wikipedia.[5]

As of February 2021, it was the most visited language Wikipedia in Latvia.[6] It ranked before the Russian Wikipedia and the English Wikipedia.[7] [8]

History

The Latvian Wikipedia was created alongside the Serbian, Kannada, Walloon, Wolof, and Xhosa Wikipedias.[2] The oldest article is "Psihologija", which was published on 6 June 2003 and redirected to "Psiholoģija" (psychology) on 7 December 2004.[9] The main page was added four months after the first article, on 6 October 2003.[10]

The edition's initial growth was slow and some articles about important aspects of Latvian culture were missing at first.[1] The article about Jāņi, for instance, was not written until March 2008.[11] The Latvian Wikipedia's growth rate has been very stable since 2006.[12]

On 30 September 2013, the VisualEditor was made available to logged-in users, and by 7 October 2013, it was available to all users on the Latvian Wikipedia.[13]

The Latvian Wikipedia turned 10 years old on 6 June 2013. A commemorative logo was uploaded for the occasion, and small parties among the community's "Wikiholics" ensued, as it is customary whenever a new milestone is reached.[14] The edition surpassed 50,000 articles on 17 August 2013.[3]

Name and logo

On 22 September 2004, the first Latvian "Wikipēdija" logo was uploaded, and on 1 June 2005, the name was changed to "Vikipēdija".[15] In Latvian media, the words "Wikipedia" and "Vikipēdija" are used interchangeably to refer to both Wikipedia in general and to the Latvian edition specifically, but "Vikipēdija" is more common.[16] [17]

In response to the Zolitūde shopping centre roof collapse disaster of 21 November 2013, the Latvian Wikipedia, just as several other Latvian websites, changed its logo for three days to include black and the image of a candle.

Related projects

A separate Latgalian Wikipedia (ltg) was created on 18 March 2011.[18] Latgalian is spoken in Latgale, the eastern part of Latvia, and its standardized form is recognized and protected as a variety of Latvian language by Latvian law,[19] although it is debated whether it is a dialect of Latvian or a separate language.[20]

Neciklopēdija, the Latvian edition of Uncyclopedia, is a satirical website created on 30 November 2005 to parody the Latvian Wikipedia. An article outlining the internal politics between the Latvian Wikipedia's administrators and its most active users was written on 10 March 2011.[21]

Since 11 June 2014, a "!Bang" command on DuckDuckGo gives users the ability to redirect search queries to the Latvian Wikipedia by typing in their browser's URL bar.[22]

Milestones

Latvian Wikipedia Marathon

The (Latvian: Latvijas Vikipēdijas maratons) was a project that brought together the Latvian Wikipedia community with several private partners in a joint effort with the aim of expanding the Latvian Wikipedia to activate the usability of the Latvian language in the learning process, cognition and research work.

Policies

Since 31 October 2012, the Latvian Wikipedia displays a notice encouraging users to sign a petition on the Latvian social initiative platform ManaBalss.lv in an effort to change the Latvian copyright law, which permits taking pictures of architectural works and monuments, but only for non-commercial purposes. According to the petition, "such restrictions are not reasonable for buildings, monuments, sculptures and other three-dimensional works that cannot be fully reproduced in two dimensions".[1] [23] If the law changed, pictures of Latvian public buildings would become valid on Wikimedia Commons.

Images

The Latvian Wikipedia has an Exemption Doctrine Policy (Godprātīga lietošana) that allows local uploads of non-free, fair use images and audio/video files (with copyright restrictions). However, users are encouraged to release their work under a Creative Commons license and upload it on Wikimedia Commons instead, thus making it accessible throughout all editions of Wikipedia. This stance is similar to the English Wikipedia's, and in contrast to some other editions, which rely strictly on Wikimedia Commons for images, sound, and other media files, including i.a. the Spanish, Swedish, Polish, Basque, Czech, Danish, Volapük and Latin Wikipedias.[4] [26] [27]

Content and images from the Latvian Wikipedia often appear on Latvian news websites.[28] [29] [30] [31]

Statistics

As of, the Latvian Wikipedia's articles[4] account for approximately % of all the articles written in a Baltic language, an increase from 24% in 2014. This makes it the second-largest edition in the family after Lithuanian, which accounts for %.[5] In 2018, the most popular articles were "Latvija" (Latvia), "2018. gada Pasaules čempionāts hokejā" (2018 IIHF World Championship), and "Rīga", the capital of Latvia.[32]

, the Latvian Wikipedia had 49 featured articles (Latvian: vērtīgi raksti) and a moderate ratio of 0.5 featured articles per 1000 articles,[33] 110 good articles (Latvian: labi raksti),[34] 19 featured lists (Latvian: vērtīgi saraksti),[35] and 18 Wikiprojects (Vikiprojekts).[36]

It currently has a moderately high depth indicator of,[37] which is greater than other than that of Wikipedias in other Baltic languages[38] and some of the largest editions including Polish, Dutch, and Swedish .

, according to the list of Wikipedias by sample of articles at Meta-Wiki, which is based on the list of articles every Wikipedia should have, the Latvian Wikipedia ranked 60th out of 295 editions, with a score of 23.18/100. It lacked no article from the list of vital articles, but contained three times more stubs than articles.

Community

Although there is still no Wikimedia chapter in Latvia, the Wikimedia Foundation officially recognized the Wikimedians of Latvia User Group (Latvian: Latvijas vikimedisti) on 5 March 2015.[39] It is an active user group representing all Wikimedians in Latvia.

In 2014, the Latvian Wikipedia was the third most read edition in Latvia, after the English Wikipedia and the Russian Wikipedia.[40] It is also the seventh most read edition on the island of Guernsey, where there is an emerging Latvian diaspora of approximately 1,500 to 2,000 migrant workers.[41] Despite Latvian having less than 2 million speakers, the edition enjoys a relatively high level of community participation, with 54 editors per million speakers.[42]

At around articles per thousand speakers, the Latvian Wikipedia has an above-average number of articles per speaker.[43] These figures were based on an estimate of 1.8 million speakers of Latvian.[44] Its editing community currently consists of administrators (% of all active users) and active contributors, of which on average between 12 and 20 are very active every month,[45] and there are in total 62 users with over 1,000 edits (excluding bots), and 20 approved bots, assisting users in the editing process.[46] [47] [48] Around 90% of both views and edits originate from Latvia, where Wikipedia is the 12th most visited website.[49]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: "Vikipēdijas" latviešu versijai jau desmit gadi . . 5 June 2013 . 21 July 2014 . lv.
  2. Web site: Zachte. Erik. Creation history / Accomplishments. stats.wikimedia.org. 9 May 2014.
  3. Web site: Vikipēdija:Aktualitātes. Vikipēdija. Wikimedia Foundation. 11 May 2014. lv.
  4. Web site: List of Wikipedias. Meta-Wiki. Wikimedia Foundation. .
  5. Web site: List of Wikipedias by language group. Meta-Wiki. Wikimedia Foundation. 9 May 2014.
  6. https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/lv.wikipedia.org/reading/page-views-by-country/normal|table|2021-01-31~2021-03-01|(access)~desktop*mobile-app*mobile-web|monthly Page views by country - Latvian Wikipedia
  7. https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/lv.wikipedia.org/reading/page-views-by-country/normal|table|2021-01-31~2021-03-01|(access)~desktop*mobile-app*mobile-web|monthly Page views by country - Russian Wikipedia
  8. https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/lv.wikipedia.org/reading/page-views-by-country/normal|table|2021-01-31~2021-03-01|(access)~desktop*mobile-app*mobile-web|monthly Page views by country - English Wikipedia
  9. Web site: Raksta "Psiholoģija" vēsture. Vikipēdija. 9 May 2014. lv.
  10. Web site: Raksta "Sākumlapa" vēsture. Vikipēdija. 9 May 2014. lv.
  11. Web site: Links — Reference. Latvians Online. https://web.archive.org/web/20140513072308/http://latviansonline.com/links/topic/C649/. 13 May 2014. 12 May 2014. Incidentally, seeing as Jāņi is fast approaching, we searched Vikipēdija but came up with nothing. The English version, though, does have quite a comprehensive section on the subject of "Midsummer," covering the whole region of Northern Europe and the way it celebrates this time of the year..
  12. Web site: Zachte. Erik. Wikipedia Statistics — Europe — Contributors. stats.wikimedia.org. 12 May 2014.
  13. Web site: VisualEditor. MediaWiki. Wikimedia Foundation. 12 May 2014.
  14. Web site: Elīna. Zalāne. Latviešu Vikipēdija svin 10 gadu jubileju. Diena. 12 May 2014. lv. 7 June 2013.
  15. Web site: Aizvien par "Wikipēdija" / "Vikipēdija". Vikipēdija. 12 May 2014. lv.
  16. Web site: Vikipēdijas krievu valodas versija pārtrauc darbu, protestējot pret interneta cenzēšanu. Kasnotiek.com. 13 May 2014. lv. 10 July 2012.
  17. Web site: Pirmā persona, kas iegūst savu "Wikipedia" lapu vēl pirms piedzimšanas. 15 July 2013. DELFI.lv. 12 May 2014. lv.
  18. Web site: "Wikipedia" jau turi versiją latgalių kalba. DELFI.lt. 18 May 2014. lt. 4 April 2011.
  19. Web site: Valsts valodas likums. Likumi.lv. 18 May 2014. lv. 1 September 2000.
  20. Web site: Recenzija par pētījumu "Valodas loma reģiona attīstībā". politika.lv. 18 May 2014. Ina Druviete. lv. 22 July 2001.
  21. Web site: "Latviešu Vikipēdija" versiju hronoloģija. Neciklopēdija. 8 November 2019. lv.
  22. Web site: !Bang. Duckduckgo.com. 11 June 2014.
  23. Web site: MediaWiki:Sitenotice. Vikipēdija. 12 May 2014. lv.
  24. Web site: Kategorija:Individuālās attēlu autortiesību veidnes. Vikipēdija. 13 May 2014. lv.
  25. Web site: Dažas fīčas . Vikipēdija . 9 May 2014 . 21 July 2014.
  26. Web site: Non-free content. Meta-Wiki. Wikimedia Foundation. 12 May 2014.
  27. Web site: Londona iet ar kājām. Kasjauns.lv. 12 May 2014. lv. 5 February 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140513112404/http://www.kasjauns.lv/lv/lielasbildes.html?bigimage_offset=5. 13 May 2014. dead.
  28. Web site: Kapteinis Herberts Cukurs. TVNET/LETA. 12 May 2014. lv. 17 April 2014.
  29. Web site: Ainaram Bagatskim paskaidrojums no wikipedia.org. Kasjauns.lv. 12 May 2014. lv. 31 January 2011.
  30. Web site: Halovīns ir klāt. Kasjauns.lv. 12 May 2014. lv. 31 October 2013. Halovīns Visu svēto dienas priekšvakars, 31. oktobra vakars. Šajā vakarā cilvēki pārģērbjas par spokiem, raganām, miroņiem un citiem mošķiem un staigā pa mājām, prasot saldumus. Tā ir ASV tradīcija, taču globalizācijas rezultātā šī tradīcija tiek pārnesta arī uz citām valstīm, arī Latviju. Info: Wikipedia [...] Tesmeņveidīgie mākoņi jeb maisveida mākoņi ir mākoņi ar nokareniem puslodes formas izspiedumiem to apakšdaļā. Šie izspiedumi tiecas uz leju līdzīgi tesmeņiem vai nokarenām kabatām. No tā radies mākoņu nosaukums. Šādi mākoņi retumis novērojami negaisa mākoņu aizmugurē vasaras periodā. Info: Wikipedia. https://web.archive.org/web/20140513111333/http://www.kasjauns.lv/lv/lielasbildes/557/halovins-ir-klat. 13 May 2014. dead.
  31. Web site: Tesmeņveidīgo mākoņu neparastais skaistums. Kasjauns.lv. 12 May 2014. lv. 23 January 2014. Tesmeņveidīgie mākoņi jeb maisveida mākoņi ir mākoņi ar nokareniem puslodes formas izspiedumiem to apakšdaļā. Šie izspiedumi tiecas uz leju līdzīgi tesmeņiem vai nokarenām kabatām. No tā radies mākoņu nosaukums. Šādi mākoņi retumis novērojami negaisa mākoņu aizmugurē vasaras periodā. Info: Wikipedia. https://web.archive.org/web/20140513111150/http://www.kasjauns.lv/lv/lielasbildes/591/tesmenveidigo-makonu-neparastais-skaistums. 13 May 2014. dead.
  32. Web site: Topviews Analysis. tools.wmflabs.org. 2019-11-10.
  33. Web site: Vikipēdija:Vērtīgi raksti. Vikipēdija. 7 November 2019. lv.
  34. Web site: Vikipēdija:Labi raksti. Vikipēdija. 7 November 2019. lv.
  35. Web site: Vērtīgi saraksti. Vikipēdija. 19 July 2014. lv.
  36. Web site: Vikipēdija:Vikiprojekts. Vikipēdija. lv. 19 July 2014.
  37. Depth is a rough indicator of a Wikipedia's collaborative quality showing how frequently its articles are updated. A higher depth usually indicates that articles are more often edited.
  38. The Latgalian, Lithuanian, and Samogitian Wikipedias have a depth indicator of,, and respectively.
  39. Web site: Wikimedians of Latvia User Group - Meta. meta.wikimedia.org. en. 2019-11-10.
  40. Web site: Zachte. Erik. Wikimedia Traffic Analysis Report — Wikipedia Page Views Per Country — Trends. 11 May 2014.
  41. Lulle. Aija. Latvians in Guernsey an Emerging Translocal Labor Diaspora. Baltic Worlds. 22 January 2014. VI:3-4. 10–16. 11 May 2014.
  42. Web site: Zachte. Erik. Wikipedia Statistics — Sitemap. stats.wikimedia.org. 11 May 2014.
  43. Web site: List of Wikipedias by speakers per article. Meta-Wiki. Wikimedia Foundation. 10 May 2014.
  44. Book: ru:Латышский язык, языки в Латвии. 2003. Valsts valodas komisija. 9984720365. http://www.vvk.lv/doc_upl/Valodas_Latvijaa_RUS.pdf. 11 May 2014. ru.
  45. A very active user is one with 100+ edits in the main namespace of a given project over the last 30 days.
  46. Web site: Vikipēdija:Boti. Vikipēdija. lv. 13 July 2014.
  47. Web site: Zachte. Erik. 50 recently active wikipedians, excl. bots, ordered by number of contributions. stats.wikimedia.org. 11 May 2014.
  48. Web site: Analytics/Metric definitions. MediaWiki, The Free Wiki Engine. 11 April 2013.
  49. Web site: Alexa - Top Sites in Latvia - Alexa. www.alexa.com. 2019-11-10. 2009-04-03. https://web.archive.org/web/20090403030721/https://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/LV. dead.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Latvian Wikipedia".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.