Hi Michael,
English is the source language, so that is always at 100% translated. Because it still is a localisation, it has its place in the localisation statistics. This does not mean that it has the highest quality. We regularly find errors and typos in it and fix them. The English localisation is usually made by developers and they are not always the best writers of User Interface messages, as you may have noticed. ;)
About 10% of the localisations are being maintained outide Betawiki. English, and German are among those. The other 8 languages I reported on are being maintained in Betawiki. You can find a list as complete as possible on http://translatewiki.net/wiki/Translating:Languages
I reported on the 10 languages with the largest Wikipedias as a teaser and linked to the Group stats for a complete overview. I am kind of hoping the Spanish translators will finally get the hint ;) I also mentioned my report on localisation. I am planning on writing that 2-3 more times this year. That will most definately not focus on Wikipedia and it's largest language variants.
My previous email does in no way mean that Upper Sorbian (or any other language with an almost complete localisation) would have a localisation of lower quality. To the contrary. Maintenance for Upper Sorbian (but also for Arabic, Occitan, and Slovenian) has been excellent over the past few months and in the list of 300+ supported languages, it is among the languages that have the most complete localisation. Credit where credit's due, but now I am not mentioning another 70 or so languages for which people are also making an effort; they have just not finished yet.
However, my mail would have gotten too long if I had mentioned each and every aspect of what we as the Betawiki community are doing for MediaWiki localisation. I do hope you understand.
Cheers! Siebrand
-----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- Van: translators-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:translators-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] Namens Michael Wolf Verzonden: zondag 17 februari 2008 21:35 Aan: Wikimedia Translators Onderwerp: Re: [Translators-l] MediaWiki 1.12 about to be branched: please give localisation a push
[snip]
100%? They have been translated outside Betwaiki, am I right? English? Did anybody translate from English into English? It isn't fair to include it into statistics. The 10 largest Wikipedias. Alwasy still the largest ones. :-( There are some small Wikipedias that have been localized very well, too. ;-)
Kind regards Michawiki