Steve Bennet writes:
What benefit, besides pure ego, does sharing this information with the world via babel boxes actually have?
Speaking only for myself, I often try to talk to people from all the different language editions of wikipedia. I like to know what level of English a person feels comfortable with so that I can try to accomodate them as much as possible if necessary. I enjoy taking the time to review things that I have written, asking myself whether I have used an obscure word when a common word would suffice, etc.
Also, I am myself a language learning: spending time every day studying German, and just now getting to the point where I might consider upgrading my babel box from de-1 to de-2. When I do, I really hope that more Germans will try to write to me (using common words rather than obscure ones) so that I can make new friends and learn new things.
We are an international project, and I think that babel boxes are great for helping us to find other people who are interested in the same languages.