[Foundation-l] Translatewiki illustrates how low internationalisation is in the priorities of the Wikimedia Foundation

[Teofilo]

Before Translatewiki existed it was possible for Wikimedia/Wikipedia
users to improve the translation of the Mediawiki software's message
used on their project into their own language.

It is no longer possible now, because Translatewiki exists, and there
is a powerful Translatewiki lobby within the local Wikipedia/Wikimedia
communities which actively fights against the translation of messages
on-wiki, and compells users to open a user account on Translatewiki
(1).

"Translatewiki.net is not part of the Wikimedia Foundation projects" (2).

So users are requested to either

* Let awkward translations go on being displayed on their language
version of Wikipedia
* Or open an account on a non-Wikimedia project, which means providing
non-Wikimedia managers access to your personal data. That means you
are loosing the guarantees of
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_policy (the guarantee that
your data are accessed only exceptionally and in such exceptional
cases, always handled by people trusted by the Wikimedia Foundation)

A user who wants to remain just that : a Wikimedia user, not a
non-Wikimedia user can no longer work successfully on a
Wikimedia/Wikipedia wiki.

I ask the Wikimedia Foundation to protect its users from the
aggressions of non-Wikimedia projects. And to implement a set of
policies to prevent this sort of non-Wikimedia project lobbying.

I ask the Wikimedia Foundation to support people involved in
translation work, rather than expell them to non-Wikimedia projects.

Symbolically, that means that the Wikimedia Foundation is expelling
internationalisation.

"Internationalisation ? What ? I don't want that to happen in my
house", the Wikimedia Foundation is saying.

(1) http://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikip%C3%A9dia%3ADemande_d%27intervention_sur_un_message_syst%C3%A8me&action=historysubmit&diff=61680671&oldid=61680545
(2) http://translatewiki.net/wiki/Project:About