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Stack Exchange is about to launch a new site for Greek. It is currently in commitment phase, looking for a sufficient amount of interested people before launching a beta site. If you are interested in such a site, please take a look and consider committing to it.

If the Greek site gets started and becomes a grown-up SE site, it will have an effect on our policy towards Greek questions. Is there anything we should do at this stage? Or should we just wait and see?

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I have always personally been against questions solely about Greek. I understand that there is a definitive link between Greek and Latin, but it just doesn't make sense to me that Latin Language Stack Exchange includes questions about a language that isn't Latin, and that the substance of said questions does not pertain to Latin in some way except for the fact that the language in question is etymologically related. I full-heartedly support a separate site for Greek, and if this site is created, all purely Greek related questions (i.e. those that don't include some relevance to the Latin language itself) should be considered off-topic. For now, we can retain our current policy, but if the site appears to be gaining momentum in this commitment phase, I believe we can begin our shift away from Greek. And, if the site reaches the beta stage, this is a clear indicator that we should begin to distance ourselves from Greek, as there is obviously no need for two sites that will accept Greek questions from the same time period and about the same substance. To be clear, Greek questions that directly relate to Latin will remain on-topic, but those that have a weak or non-existent link should not be allowed.

In summary, wait, but once the Greek site gains momentum, make purely Greek questions off-topic.

Edit

To further clarify, Greek should be declared off-topic once the Greek site reaches beta. For now, we should encourage Greek questions to be posted on the Greek site to support their efforts!

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    I agree with this sentiment, but I know that many do not. However, I think we should not hurry to declare Greek off-topic before the Greek site is on firm footing, preferably graduated. The Greek site might fail, and in that case all questions redirected there will be lost. Do you think we should declare Greek off-topic when (if) the Greek beta starts, or at some other point?
    – Joonas Ilmavirta Mod
    Commented May 14, 2017 at 1:14
  • @JoonasIlmavirta Yes, once it reaches beta, Greek should be off-topic because by that point it should be self-sustainable enough. And for now, I think we should encourage all purely Greek questions to be asked on the Greek site, as, from a practical standpoint, this will help that site grow in this important stage.
    – Sam K
    Commented May 14, 2017 at 1:36
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    Can you edit that to your post? That would make the point clearer, especially if more comments pile up. // Beta does not mean self-sustainable yet; several sites have been closed after entering beta. Once the Greek beta is online and up to speed, we definitely need to have a meta discussion about it. (FWIW, I support your view of disallowing Greek questions without Latin connection at that point.) Now it's all speculative, but I really appreciate any early ideas.
    – Joonas Ilmavirta Mod
    Commented May 14, 2017 at 1:45
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    I'm glad that we've been able to accommodate questions about Greek. It was some benevolent flexibility that made good sense, given that StackExchange had no designated place to ask them. But yes, when and if Greek gets its own StackExchange, then we should move questions about Greek over there. That'll make both sites more useful for everyone.
    – Ben Kovitz
    Commented May 14, 2017 at 15:39
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I indeed believe that Greek deserves its own StackExchange. I would also like to point out that until it enters its beta, people will continue to have many issues when looking for experts to answer their Greek questions. How is one expected to know that the Latin StackExchange covers this language as well unless he stumbles upon it? It simply makes no sense. For now, Greek questions are constantly answered rarely, inaccurately, or not at all, because of course those who can answer Greek questions are probably somewhere other than the Latin site.

Simply put, Greek questions and experts to answer them will never find each other unless such a site were created. Therefore, when asked if It should be, my answer is "why doesn't it?".

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    Otherwise I agree, but I'm not sure about this statement: "Greek questions are constantly answered rarely, inaccurately, or not at all" I haven't been following that closely, though, since the answers would be all Greek to me anyway.
    – Joonas Ilmavirta Mod
    Commented May 18, 2017 at 15:13
  • « those who can answer Greek questions are probably somewhere other than the Latin site » — Modern Greek, perhaps. Ancient Greek? No. The majority of those who have studied Ancient Greek and would be able to answer questions about it have also studied Latin and are likely to be found on the Latin site as well. (Though of course I agree that Greek needs its own site.)
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Jun 8, 2017 at 15:23
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    @JanusBahsJacquet I don't know if you're right or wrong about a majority, but a very large number of religious students study Koine Greek and with little or no knowledge of Latin.
    – curiousdannii
    Commented Jun 9, 2017 at 12:39
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I am sorry to see that the proposal "has been deleted."  I'm trying to learn Modern Greek (though I'm also interested in koine).  So far, I haven’t found a good place to ask questions about things I can’t find in a dictionary.

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  • Unfortunately the Stack Exchange network doesn't cater for that need. You can propose a new site on Area 51 if you want, but I strongly recommend planning it with others in advance lest it fall flat.
    – Joonas Ilmavirta Mod
    Commented Mar 13, 2022 at 20:43
  • Fall flat—like the one mentioned above obviously did.
    – WGroleau
    Commented Mar 13, 2022 at 23:15
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    Exactly. If you just go and give it a shot, the proposal is likely to join a long list of failed ones for a Greek SE site. I'd be happy to see such a site take off, but it will take serious effort and coordination; mere luck is unlikely to suffice.
    – Joonas Ilmavirta Mod
    Commented Mar 14, 2022 at 1:43
  • One online forum where questions about modern Greek are on-topic is Wordreference
    – Asteroides
    Commented Mar 14, 2022 at 8:08

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