Biggest South African language Wikipedias and their editors, and quite a few Non-English contributions too

There is a large contingent of unpaid volunteers writing Wikipedia entries in South African languages.

Wikipedia is the only non-commercial and mostly volunteer-driven platform in the world’s top 10 most visited websites.

To help contribute to Wikipedia, users can simply click the “edit” button at the top of each article.

For contributions to persist through the scrutiny of the editing community, however, editors must provide a link to a reliable third-party source — such as a news article from a reputable outlet.

Southern Africa has an official member organisation for Wikipedia editors, founded in 2012. Wikimedia ZA is the WMF-recognised Southern African chapter of Wikipedia volunteers.

It is really good to see volunteers from the non-English languages also contributing, as this is how languages get some online presence and usage. Volunteers don’t sit back and wait for someone else, or a big corporation, to do something for them. They make things happen themselves! I also have edited and contributed to my local Wikipedia pages, as well as to Pen Street Maps (OSM) for my area.

I get that Wikipedia’s editing standards have to be high (unfortunately, many do try to manipulate articles for political or other causes in a non-factual manner) but Wikipedia is an important repository of knowledge especially for cultural aspects as well. Keeping a couple of paper notes in a shoe box is not going to serve any purpose in 100 years time.

The linked article also includes a link for more detailed information on how to edit Wikipedia pages, including some videos. There is an accepted way of editing pages, so it is worth taking a little time to just get familiar with it.

See https://mybroadband.co.za/news/internet/500319-biggest-wikipedia-south-african-languages-and-editors.html
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