On 3/19/08, DanTMan <dan_the_man(a)telus.net> wrote:
Quite simply... Cache...
Wikipedia runs behind squid, and that allows all anon visitors to view
the exact same page cached by squid instead of needing to make MediaWiki
recreate the page each and every time another person wants it.
Because of the cache, the browser language isn't used. If the cache were
removed, Wikipedia would likely bog down to a halt. So language
preferences are only honored for logged in users who aren't affected by
cache.
Hmm. Any thoughts of at least caching a few of the most popular
languages and serving those as necessary? Or hell, even just English -
it's by far the most understood lingua franca, and people can even
just learn the English interface once, and they'll be ok on all the
other wikipedias.
Steve