Re: [WikiEN-l] Discussion on English Wikipedia in languages other than English

I have noted an increase of discussion on English Wikipedia in languages other than English lately. For now, I'll forgo naming languages and listing particular offenders here. Do we have a policy on this? Should we? My opinion is that we should not allow or least sternly frown upon discussion on the English Wikipedia in languages other than English. Is this racist/anti-nationalist/Anglo-centric? I don't know. I like to consider myself open-minded, but there is something very ominous to me about discussions in foreign languages on the English Wikipedia. Of course, probably the vast majority of such discussions are completely innocuous, but the rest of us have no way of knowing that unless we know what the discussions are about. There is little more frustating that having a conversation (in some cases which is clearly about you) hidden in plain sight. Of course I am symphathetic to users whose first language is not English and for whom discussing in English may be difficult. However, I am hesitant to extend such sympathy to being permissive of non-English discussion on the English Wikipedia, which is, after all, written in English. In the cases I have seen, the editors who are discussing in a foreign language have demonstrated elsewhere that they are competent writers of English, so it seems especially pernicious when they "lapse" into another language, as though they are hiding something. The policy question is what to do about users who insist on carrying out discussion on the English Wikipedia in languages other than English. Users who discuss in other languages should be invited to translate their discussion (and remove the discussion in the original language to discourage responses in the original language) or have them removed. We should not remove such discussions summarily, of course, but after a set period of time given to the user to remove their discussion, informing them on their user page, etc. The policy should not apply to user pages and user talk pages, but non-English discussion on those pages should at least be strongly discouraged. It creates an atmosphere of distrust. We don't permit articles in foreign languages, so why should we permit discussion in foreign languages? Please commence with the vilifying of me for being an insensitive Anglo-centric asshole. - David [[User:Nohat]] _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l(a)Wikipedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l