On 02/05/06, Alphax (Wikipedia email) <alphasigmax(a)gmail.com> wrote:
It's actually considered rude on hold
conversations in one language on a
project written in another, simply for the reason that most other users
of that project won't be able to read what's being said. IIRC there was
some fuss about vote-stacking in other languages...
I can understand that, particularly if the people in question do both
speak English to an acceptable degree. But, in terms of "getting the
encyclopaedia written", I don't see a major problem with two editors
carrying on a conversation in Lugandan while debating how best to
write an article about Ugandan culture, literature etc...
Perhaps the unspoken ban on languages other than English contributes
to the "systemic bias"?
Yes. See [[Special:Preferences]]. I've got
accounts (and have edited on)
the French, German, Italian and Polish Wikipedias (doing image
replacement mostly), even though I have no understanding of Italian or
Polish, and can barely remember a few words of French and German from
school.
Oh, thanks!
Babelfish? :)
What a pity that babelfish, in the 6 or 7 years I've been using it,
hasn't added any significant number of new languages.
Different social customs as well.
Yep. Minefield.
Learning other languages would be a good start. I find
it extremely
distasteful that native English speakers (especially certain people from
a country which shall not be named) expect that everyone speaks their
language, and worse, their particular version of it.
Definitely, but learning 20+ languages is no easy task! Other than
French, I can read Spanish more or less, and can pick out bits of
German. But even to get to basic textual conversational competency is
a fair challenge. I'm keen to have a go though :)
Steve