(Copying this discussion from Wikimedia-l to the more specific email list Wikidata-l.)
Hi Vahid, if you don't get answers to your remaining questions on Wikidata-l then I suggest asking on https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Project_chat. Even if there was not an external project involved, there probably are people who are interested in data quality and language accessibility including Arabic translations, and who may be willing to assist. Regards, Pine🌲 On Mon, Aug 24, 2026 at 12:11 PM Lydia Pintscher via Wikimedia-l < [email protected]> wrote: > Hi Vahid, > > On Mon, Aug 24, 2026 at 8:05 PM Vahid Shaik via Wikimedia-l > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Hi all, > > > > I run an Arabic-first prayer-times site (https://waqtazan.com). It is > not a > > Wikimedia project, but it leans on open geodata, and I have hit a gap I > > suspect this community knows more about than I do. > > Great to hear! > > > We publish one server-rendered page per city, in Arabic. Our rule is > that a > > city ships only if it has a verified Arabic name — we never machine- > > transliterate one, because a wrong place name in Arabic is worse than an > > absent city. That rule is expensive: a large share of our live names > still > > fall back to GeoNames, which is inconsistent for Arabic, and cities > without > > a trustworthy name are simply excluded. > > > > Wikidata is the obvious candidate source. Before I lean on it, three > > questions: > > > > 1. How reliable are Wikidata `ar` labels for settlements in practice? My > > worry is that many are bot-imported transliterations rather than the > > endonym a local reader would recognise. Is there a way to tell the two > > apart at scale? > > > > 2. Labels are CC0, so there is no legal attribution duty. But what is the > > community norm for a project reusing them at this scale? I would > rather > > over-credit than under-credit, and I would like to do it the way the > > movement expects. > > Please see > https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Data_access#Data_best_practices > for an answer to this. > > > 3. Is anyone already working on Arabic labels for settlements outside the > > Arab world — Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, West Africa? That is exactly > > where our coverage thins out, and if there is an existing effort I > would > > rather contribute to it than duplicate it. > > > > Happy to be told I am framing any of this wrong. > > > > Thanks, > > Vahid > > https://waqtazan.com > > Cheers > Lydia > > -- > Lydia Pintscher - https://lydiapintscher.de - WD:Q18016466 > Portfolio Lead for Wikidata > > Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin > Phone: +49 30 5771162-0 > https://wikimedia.de > > Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in > the sum of all knowledge. Help us to achieve our vision! > https://spenden.wikimedia.de > > Wikimedia Deutschland — Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. > V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Charlottenburg, VR > 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für > Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207. Geschäftsführende > Vorständin: Franziska Heine. > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- [email protected], guidelines > at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > Public archives at > https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/message/4NKCYCYSZ3JJMACMCC3CTJHWEVOIJFFM/ > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
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