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(a)gmail.com>om>:
On Jan 25, 2008 6:10 AM, <daniwo59(a)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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