Bangla WikiConnect: How We Revived the Small Bangla Wikimedia Projects

Contests and edit-a-thons play a vital role in recruiting new Wikimedians, especially in medium-sized or small Wikimedia projects. My own journey began from one such event: a local article writing contest on Bangla Wikipedia. That experience not only introduced me to what Wikipedia truly is, but also taught me how to contribute effectively. From there, I became one of the most active contributors to my home project, organized numerous workshops and meetups—both online and offline—and, over time, I was entrusted with global responsibilities as a Wikimedia steward.

The problem we faced

Until a few years ago, only one or two contests or edit-a-thons were organized annually, and those were mostly limited to Bangla Wikipedia. However, in recent years, some new organizers took the initiative to run similar events on smaller Wikimedia projects like Bangla Wikivoyage, Wikibooks, and Wiktionary. The impact was remarkable—projects that had been nearly inactive suddenly began to show signs of life.

For example, when I organized a contest on Bangla Wikivoyage last year, the number of articles on the project doubled within a month, and many newcomers joined. Inspired by this success, I planned to continue hosting such contests every year, as did other organizers on other projects.

But while the enthusiasm was there, independent initiatives often struggled. Funding was uncertain, schedules overlapped with other Wikimedia events, communication between organizers was limited, and many lacked the necessary skills to manage large-scale programs effectively.

Birth of Bangla WikiConnect

To address these challenges, I convened a meeting with all the independent organizers of small Bangla projects. After a few such discussions, we agreed to join forces and work as a team. Thus, Bangla WikiConnect was born—a platform connecting leaders from all Bangla Wikimedia projects.

We formed a core team to provide coordination and several dedicated teams for each event. While each event team had autonomy, the core group offered training, mentorship, and guidance to ensure smooth execution.

The results so far

Since its creation, Bangla WikiConnect has organized three major contests across different Wikimedia projects. The results speak for themselves:

• Bangla Wikiquote Contest
  • 695 new pages created
  • 188 users registered, with 61 active contributors
  • 2,299,049 words submitted; 1,627,935 words accepted
  • This was 3.43 times more than the previous contest’s accepted word count (474,170)
  • Bangla Wikiquote’s global ranking improved from 36th to 31st
    
• Bangla Wikibooks Writing Contest
  • 251 users registered
  • 58 participants submitted at least one page
  • 1,696 pages submitted, of which 1,162 were accepted
  • Accepted pages contained a total of 1,146,509 words
    
• Bangla Wiktionary Entry Contest
  • 7,996 new entries submitted
  • 45 participants actively contributed
    

And the momentum continues—another contest, this time on Bangla Wikivoyage, is currently underway! Learn more about the upcoming contest here.

Looking ahead

Bangla WikiConnect has shown that collaboration is the key to reviving small Wikimedia projects. By uniting organizers, sharing skills, and creating a supportive structure, we have not only revived once-dormant projects but also built a stronger community of contributors.

Our vision is to keep this energy alive—continuing annual contests, recruiting new contributors, and making the Bangla Wikimedia projects thrive together.