From Struggles to Dreams
Hey, Wikimedians. It’s SNN95, and I’m sharing my 12-year experience as a supervisor on Wikipedia Bahasa Melayu (WBM) or Bahasa Melayu projects as a whole. Since the early days, about 2013, our little admin team has encountered constant hurdles, including daily edit fights, vandalism sprees, and the grind of maintaining our small encyclopedia accurate with only a few hands on deck. Those late evenings reversing incorrect modifications and managing arguments were difficult, but they taught me the value of our community spirit.
Posters credit: Rulwarih
Now, nearly 12 years later, I’m in amazement of our progress. With Wikimedia Malaysia’s help since 2017, we’ve gone from scrappy to thriving, with more articles and a growing editor base. Their meetups, workshops, and campaigns, such as the WikiKata movement, which added thousands of Malay and indigenous language entries to Wiktionary, have also boosted our sibling projects. It’s been a game changer to watch newcomers become into dedicated contributors.
Based on the recent collaboration for the Wikimedia Boot Camp with the Wikikent Club IPG Kent and the online WikiTemu Daring with Wikimedia Indonesia, I have seen tremendous interest from Malay speakers outside Malaysia who are eager to contribute their knowledge to Wikipedia Bahasa Melayu (WBM).
This realization presents even greater possibilities. WBM can evolve beyond a standard reference site to become a vital cultural hub, potentially hosting digital archives for Malaysian or Malay-speaking folklore and facilitating school collaborations to teach editing skills. While my previous focus due to work commitments was primarily on supervisory tasks, such as managing permissions and project sign-offs, I am now ready to submit innovative proposals to significantly increase our influence.
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