Featured Wikimedian/Nominations/SM7



User:SM7, the silent anonymous poster boy for Bhojpuri and Hindi Wikipedia has been working since 2011 with over 59,000 global edits without any recognition. He would have continued to be an unsung hero with his awesome work for the flourishment of Wikipedia for no one knows how long, if we would not have discovered his work recently. He is a sysop on Hindi and Bhojpuri Wikipedia where he is continuously working to bring new contributors and quality contents. User:SM7 is a teacher by profession based somewhere in Uttar Pradesh. Writing on region and geographical features are one of the favourite topics of User:SM7.

User:SM7 came to know about Wikipedia while searching something on Google, it was then he noticed that there is a link to Bhojpuri Wikipedia on the sidebar of the article page he was looking at on English Wikipedia. Like others, he was excited when he found Wikipedia on his native language, but then he realized that the quality and quantity on Bhojpuri Wikipedia is way low in comparison to English, and that's how his journey on Wikipedia started, he decided to contribute on Bhojpuri Wikipedia.

He chose to volunteer on Bhojpuri language because according to him, "it is a good place to work on because It gives me satisfaction that I am contributing for my language and my society. I thoroughly believe that all the information should be available in all the languages and no one should be hampered in obtaining knowledge just because one speaks some less celebrated language."

User:SM7 has created over 191 quality articles on Hindi Wikipedia and aspires to work on other Wikipedias (Sanskrit and Fiji Hindi) in future. According to him, lack of dedicated users and technically competent editors on smaller Wikipedias like Bhojpuri is a factor affecting the growth of the project. He says, "On Hindi wiki we have a huge number but lack quality articles (a lot of them unreferenced). On hindi wiki I always look for improving quality rather than quantity. Along with Sanjeev Kumar (U:संजीव कुमार) and some others I have restarted wikiproject सुधालेख (Something like collaboration of the week) which was down for nearly more than an year."

Although he invests a lot of time for the growth of Wikipedia, he always prefers to stay anonymous, he says, "I wanted to be judged only by my contributions on wiki and the way I take part in discussions etc. NOT by information based on what I do in real life, or where I live, or what my educational qualifications are." In his leisure time he loves to read books.