Request to add Makassarese in Translatewiki
Should the Latin variant be the default ([mak] insted of [mak-latn]), or should it be always suffixed ([mak-lant] and not just [mak])? Do you intend to use that default in a future wiki (or any future wikis that could exist)?
Note how Chinese for example is managed: it has no default [zh] enabled, only the two variants [zh-hans] and [zh-hant] are enabled, plus a legacy variant [zh-tw] with some distinctions from the fallback to [zh-hant])
I see that on the portal you tried to activate it, and hesitated with the "-1" suffix for script variants. The variants without "-1" is to be used for the bare language code; the variant with "-1" indicates that the language code will always be suffixed and the bare code will not be used. You can't have both at the same time. And the "no-" options must match together with the variant it disables in the portal with the same numeric suffix.
So my question here is whever you want [mak] (no "-1" in parameters of the portal) or [mak-latn] (with "-1") as the default to be enabled for translations in that language... If you consider Chinese, no default script is applied, and all translations are made in a suffixed language code for each variant. This is not the case for all languages that have some variants, such as Mongolian, or English (which has some variants e.g. in the Deseret script, but keep the default Latin script unsuffixed in the language code [en]).
Note also that the Portal:Mak is already created, but marked disabled (it will be enabled by a site admin after he creates one or more of the 3 variants; at that time the portal and its related categories can be unmarked; do not remove this mark, to avoid activating translation links in the portal that would actually not reach the intended target language, but would display the translation UI for another unrelated language).
Anyway you can already register yourself in the list of translators on the portal, and also update your own user page to use "mak" in your #babel box (these two are separate, because you could wantto indicate with #babel boxes your knowledge of a language, for example when communicating with other people, without desiring to translate to it; the registration in the portal indicates your desire to translate it and your effective activity into it; you may as well unregister from the portal if you abandon that project, while leaving the language in your user page, where you indicate the languages with which you prefer communicating with others).
(when the language has been effectively enabled, you'll see that Special:ActiveLanguages/mak (or maybe Special:ActiveLanguages/mak-latn?) no longer displays that the error message at bottom saying it is unknown or unsupported; when this is done, the portal may be updated to remove the "disabled" banner and to enable the correct translation link).
Currently the use of Latin letters is very massive, even the majority now write them in Latin script. However, some cultural activists want to keep writing lontarak.
I'm also still in a dilemma with this. How best for this case?
On the one hand, I want to harmonize the Bugis Wikipedia which uses lontarak as its main system, but on the one hand its use is now less popular. People mostly use Latin letters.