[Foundation-l] Supporting languages is supporting people

Wed Oct 31 10:40:36 UTC 2007

2007/10/27, GerardM <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com>:

> It is wrong to suggest that the User Interface is not a vital component of a
> successful Wikipedia. With some regularity projects are voted to be closed
> down. They are typically programs that do not have a good localisation, they
> are typically programs that do not have a community. They are typically
> Wikipedias that have been started prematurely.

So? I think you're having it backward now. Yes, projects that are
voted to be closed down typically do not have a good localisation. Why
is that? Not because the lack of a localisation causes the lack of a
community, but the lack of a community causes the lack of a
localisation. Localisations are there on projects where someone has
worked on localisation. That implies that there is someone working on
something, and projects where someone is working on something are
usually not closed down. Projects that have over 50 articles on
different plant species are also usually not voted down. Projects that
have a bureaucrat are usually not voted down. Projects that have an
active village pump are usually not voted down. Why require a
localisation, but not 50 plant species, a bureaucrat or an active
village pump?

> Yes, there are Wikipedias
> that are doing fine, the issue is that many people are upset by Wikipedias
> failing. We lose support for adding new languages with more projects
> failing.

We lose even more support for adding new languages by making the
adding of new languages a long, bureaucratic, drawn out process.

> What we aim for in new Wikipedias is project that provide good information
> to the people. We should not expect people to read any other language. A
> Wikipedia is there to provide people with knowledge and for this an
> appropriate user interface is essential. As long as the User Interface is
> not localised it is not yet ready to go life for the people to find
> information in their language.

I disagree. Should not the people of a Wikipedia make the decision
what is important to them, and what is readable? I think a Wikipedia
with a beginning of content and a non-localized or partly-localized
interface is more useful than one where every little text is
translated but there is just one page.

Stop the language prevention committee!!

-- 
Andre Engels, andreengels at gmail.com
ICQ: 6260644  --  Skype: a_engels