[Foundation-l] An observation on languages

Fri Jan 25 11:24:31 UTC 2008

Seconded.

The only things I feel comfortable posting here are 2 lines long answers or
are answers to post that are left unanswered since several hours.
Coming with a thoughtful/insightful answer takes time, but in the mean time
you can be sure that 10 mails will have been posted on the thread, posts
that you will need to read to make sure you are not making a redundant post
or missing an important idea. And often, the subject has drifted so far that
such a post would seems by then off-topic compared to the heated posts of
that time.

So I think most peoples now remain silent and just try to keep themselves
informed but do not voice their opinions as it feels a waste of time.

And I live in England, so the language is not even much a problem for me.
Just imagine peoples for which this list is the main daily contact with
English language...

Jerome

2008/1/25, Delphine Ménard <notafishz at gmail.com>:
>
> On Jan 25, 2008 6:10 AM,  <daniwo59 at aol.com> wrote:
> > Looking over this list for the past couple of months, several key issues
> > have been discussed. I notice, however, that most of the discussion is
> by
> > members of the English projects, with the notable exception of Gerard.
> In
> > comparison, two years ago on Foundation-l and three and four years ago
> on  Wikipedia-l
> > (pre-Foundation-l), there was much more vigorous participation from
> > representatives of other projects. In fact, that is what made Wikipedia
> a truly
> > international organization.
> >
> > I wonder where so many of the participants of those discussions have
> > drifted. Is the discussion taking place on chapter lists, at the expense
> of  the
> > Foundation umbrella, or is it taking place on internal-l, at the expense
> of
> > transparency.
>
> As far as I can make out, neither.
>
> I'd have one explanation though. There comes a point where reading in
> a language that is not yours, on a list that sprouts an average of 20
> emails of more than 2 pages a day, very often on a level of English
> that is hard to follow, just prevents one, as a non-English speaker,
> from participating. I consider myself as having a rather good level of
> English, but sorry, when you get a thread dominated by lengthy English
> speakers, I just give up.
>
> Apart from that, I find that people who have little to say on a
> subject, or who actually answer "on the side", are somehow also too
> present, and answer faster than their shadow [1], often depleting a
> thread of its substance in the very first emails to veer towards
> uninteresting side conversations, or even considerations that have
> nothing to do with the subject at hand. Which, for those who might
> have something to say about a subject but need a little time to
> formulate their answer, means that they'd be going back to a dead
> thread when they're ready to participate.
>
> To summarize: Level of English and fast pace of the list. I would
> personally not look further for an explanation.
>
> Delphine
> [1] see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Luke
> --
> ~notafish
> http://blog.notanendive.org
>
> NB. This gmail address is used for mailing lists. Personal emails sent
> to this address will probably get lost.
>
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