Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Netherlands

Devastated to hear about the destruction by fire of Vondelkerk, just at the turn of the new year. It is unsafe and unsalvageble, according to authorities; a total loss. So sad; my heart goes out to all Dutch people. I am very glad to have been able to visit it during my year living in the Netherlands. Hopefully something beautiful and inspiring will be erected in its place. Mathglot (talk) 22:06, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

Essential parts (walls and other parts of the construction) have been preserved, and there is hope that it is not a total loss, and that the building can be restored to its former glory. See reference #10 in the article. Erik Wannee (talk) 07:49, 5 January 2026 (UTC)

A glimmer of hope, then? Thanks, I look forward to future developments. Mathglot (talk) 07:50, 5 January 2026 (UTC)

You can find HERE a special page (only in Dutch, but Google Translate can help), dedicated to news and funding for restoration of the church. At january, 8, there was already €171.436,- donated by 2.744 individuals. More donations are still welcome of course. Erik Wannee (talk) 18:17, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

Hello all! Are there any editors in or around Leiden willing to photograph some gravestones at Rhijnhof cemetery? I am hoping to get photos of two graves. First is F. B. J. Kuiper who was buried in 2003. The other is Nicolaas van Wijk. Van Wijk's grave should either have an Orthodox cross or a place where one should've been. According to my source, as of 1989, he was buried alongside his adopted sons Leonid and Mikhail with one grave stone (NB: the adopted sons' names are in Cyrillic). While I have an image, it is not in the public domain nor released as a CC. If there are any editors willing to help, I'm happy to supply any other information as necessary. ThaesOfereode (talk) 02:33, 15 January 2026 (UTC)

I have asked an active Dutch Wikipedia contributor who lives in the neighborhood of that cemetery, if he can help you and make some pictures there. Erik Wannee (talk) 10:01, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

Wonderful, thank you so much, Erik! I will keep an eye on that talk page. ThaesOfereode (talk) 10:29, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

Hello, I have the opportunity to visit this cemetery within a week. I am glad to be able to help this project. Sneeuwvlakte (talk) 17:28, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

Excellent! Thank you so much, Sneeuwvlakte! ThaesOfereode (talk) 17:43, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

When I visited Rhijnhof Cemetery (three times) in October 2025, I made about 50 photographs of several still existing graves. I uploaded 12 photographs at the time and was planning to upload the rest at a later moment. I will upload several more photographs within a week. For now I have uploaded two photos of the grave of Van Wijk (and brothers Zatskoi) - one photo can be found in this conversation on the right; the other photo was made to show the damaged tombstone, i.e. the top, where you can see the part where the Eastern Cross has been removed some decades ago. Vysotsky (talk) 21:45, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

Fantastic! Thank you so much for this; I will add them to the article right now! ThaesOfereode (talk) 23:57, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

Anky van Grunsven has been nominated for a good article reassessment. If you are interested in the discussion, please participate by adding your comments to the reassessment page. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, the good article status may be removed from the article. Z1720 (talk) 15:56, 17 January 2026 (UTC)

Hey, I've recently created a Dutch adaptation of I Can See Your Voice, but there's a problem. Some seasons or episodes have missing recaps, because I can't watch them on Videoland due to geoblocking. If someone interests on that game show, please contribute these pages urgently.

• s4: Missing mystery singer names
• s5: All 8 episodes with missing mystery singer names

Saisønisse (talk) 03:21, 2 February 2026 (UTC)

I have asked RuedNL2 to take a look at it. He is active in NL-WP and in EN-WP, and he knows much about this kind of things. He replied that he will look at it if he finds time for it. Erik Wannee (talk) 07:59, 11 February 2026 (UTC)

Apologies, Erik did indeed message me about this a few days ago... but I completely forgot about it after that. It's not a show I watch, unfortunately. And personally, I find it too much work to go through all the episodes looking up names. RuedNL2 (talk) 13:00, 11 February 2026 (UTC)

Then maybe Verdel can help. He did several major edits to the Dutch version of this article as well. Erik Wannee (talk) 13:24, 11 February 2026 (UTC)

Thank you for the ping, Erik. Filling in the names for season 4 and 5 was as far as I could retrieve recapped episodes. I was unable to fill in the rest of missing names in season 5 since they are or were behind a paywall. Sorry I couldn't be of assistance. Verdel (talk) 17:45, 11 February 2026 (UTC)

 Courtesy link: Template:Welcome-foreign/Dutch

Hello. Can you help verify a brief, English-to-Dutch translation in a welcome template?

Template:Welcome-foreign is a bilingual welcome template used to welcome new users who have written content in some other language besides English. The template welcomes them first in English, then in their own language, as long as it is one of the three dozen languages it can handle. New languages are easily added. I have added support for Dutch, but I don't know Dutch well so I used automatic translation to create Template:Welcome-foreign/Dutch from the original at Template:Welcome-foreign/English. I'd appreciate it if a native Dutch speaker could verify or improve the translation. Feel free to edit it directly, or paste a better translation below, if you prefer not to edit a template. Thanks! Mathglot (talk) 01:34, 9 February 2026 (UTC)

I find it a rather odd and patronizing message, in the sense that you assume that a contributor whose native language is not english, might be unaware that Wikipedia exists in his or her native language. I find that extremely unlikely. If a contributor´s english language skills are found wanting, then that issue should be addressed. It is unnecessary to suggest that the contributor should should stick to his or her native language. Ruud Buitelaar (talk) 05:02, 9 February 2026 (UTC)

I did not intend it to be patronizing, I apologize, and I make no such assumption. As someone who is interested in languages, contributes time as a Wikipedia mentor, and has been involved with the Wikipedia Welcoming Committee for many years, I have nothing but the greatest respect for editors contributing in a second (or third, fourth, or fifth) language) and I go out of my way to encourage them. That said, sometimes there are users here who attempt to contribute using English that is simply incomprehensible, and it is not possible to fathom what they are saying. Sometimes they contribute directly to English Wikipedia using a foreign language, with no attempt to use English at all. For these small groups, rather than just ignore them, we attempt to welcome them anyway, using a bilingual welcome that includes a language they will understand, or understand better.

I make no assumption that a contributor whose native language is not English might be unaware that other language Wikipedias exist. I have no way of knowing how many do or do not, and it doesn't really matter. I assume I never hear from the great majority of them as they are too busy contributing at another Wikipedia and not here, so I never interact with them. I cannot know why editors come here without being able to communicate well enough in English to make themselves understood, or how many there are, but when they do, I want them to be welcomed.

I honestly have no idea how to "address the issue" of a contributor whose English language skills are found wanting. I am very eager to hear your suggestions, and if it can be addressed then it would further the goals of the WP:WikiProject Retention project, and help mitigate a serious problem of declining editorship at Wikipedia.

Nobody is suggesting that a contributor should should stick to his or her native language; we encourage ESL speakers at English Wikipedia. But somewhere there is a minimum bar of English competence, and if one cannot understand what they are saying, even when attempting to ask a simple question about editing, as I see from time to time as a mentor, then they would be wasting their time here, as well as the time of other volunteer editors.

Perhaps my biggest mistake was to post at this board. In a year in Holland, I only met a very small handful of people who did not speak very good English (but I was able switch to French or German, or even scrape by in Dutch, so it was never a problem). The chance that a native Dutch speaker would show up here and wish to contribute at English Wikipedia without enough English to make themselves understood is zero, or close to it. I probably should have headed over to WP:WikiProject Africa and asked about Afrikaans instead, where a translation would actually be useful. Cheers, Mathglot (talk) 06:09, 9 February 2026 (UTC)

Apologies accepted. I appreciate the work of the welcoming committee and the Retention Project. Maybe it is just my opinion that the wp:welcome-foreign messages are not very welcoming, and I am just being blunt like a Dutchman. And it is not about the english language skills of Dutch people, that I find overrated. Mind you, I think native Afrikaans speakers have a far better command of the english language than native Dutch speakers like me. If we want to help a native non-english speaker improve his or her english language skills, we should use english. On the user talk pages of the English Wikipedia, we do not want to entertain exchanges of opinion in other languages. Let´s revert or remove incomprehensible contributions. If an editor continues to make incomprehensible or non-english contributions, a temporary block might be considered. Best wishes, Ruud Buitelaar (talk) 04:23, 11 February 2026 (UTC)

 Resolved Thank you Mathglot (talk) 23:55, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

Hello all, Yesterday I (manually) translated the German Wiki into an English one. The Dutch version seemed a bit too specific for The Netherlands. I would like to invite everyone to improve and edit and if appropriate move the article from the DRAFT space to the real Wikipedia. I don't think I can do that, being a rather irregular contributor. Thanks in advance! K-filter (talk) 10:06, 9 March 2026 (UTC)

Draft:Nederlands Douane Orkest (Dutch Customs Orchestra) K-filter (talk) 10:14, 9 March 2026 (UTC)