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@gmail.com:
On Jan 25, 2008 6:10 AM, daniwo59@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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