[Foundation-l] Fw: Why we should use the community draft of the language proposal policy

Fri Dec 5 07:29:55 UTC 2008

The community was invited to collaborate on a new draft proposal for policy on the creation
of wikis in new languages. Over the past several months quite a few people participated in
the formulation of the new draft proposal, and there was extensive discussion of every
aspect. Attention was paid to every phrase.

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meta:Language_proposal_policy/Community_draft

On some things there were compromises: Regarding localization requirements, for
instance, I personally oppose the translation of the interface as a prerequisite for the
creation of a wiki, particularly when it means huge numbers of messages: currently nearly
500 for the first wiki in a language, and well over 3000 (!) messages for subsequent wikis.
Nevertheless, I understand the arguments of others, and given the fact that this huge requirement exists in the current policy anyways it is really no loss even given my position.
The rest of the draft, however, is a huge improvement in many ways. There are
compromises in everything, and the current draft is a good compromise.

In short, the draft is excellent. It is a good reflection of community opinion, and a strong
example of community collaboration and compromise. Language committee members have
participated in its formulation to a significant extent, along with the non-members who
began the draft and did most of the work on it. Overall, its spirit is similar to the current
policy, but with some significant differences in both style and content.

This excellent proposal should be ratified and made policy. Beyond the policy itself, doing
so would strengthen the Language Committee itself by showing clearly that it works in
tandem with the community and addresses community concerns.

Dovi