Hoi, You have always got it wrong. When you talk about common languages, you would expect Swahili to have a large Wikipedia. When you consider Dutch, hardly a "common" language, you will find it has a substantial Wikipedia with all the trimmings. When you consider the English Wikipedia, for all its size, it is very much biased against certain topics. the roads and villages of the US are all there but where are all the roads and villages of Georgia, Russia or Spain let alone India, Kenia or Nigeria?
When people speak a particular language as their first language, it typically means that they share a particular culture. With this culture certain assumptions are shared. When you learn a second language, you do not know all the assumptions inherent in the culture that is to be associated with this language. Even when you are right that it is "easy" to have all content in a few languages, it does not imply that this text is properly understood. In order to make it understood you have to dumb down the language and that is not a good idea either. Also I am quite happy to be Dutch, I am not eager to contribute to the English language Wikipedia, it seems at times like a vipers nest to me.
By the way, there are over 250 Wikipedias and Betawiki supports substantially more languages for the MediaWiki localisation.
Thanks, GerardM
On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 7:18 AM, mboverload mboverloadlister@gmail.comwrote:
On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 2:08 PM, Nikola Smolenski smolensk@eunet.yu wrote:
The point is, it is easier and cheaper to educate people in their
language
than to force a foreign language on them.
Call me a centrist prick, but I've always thought it would be much more benificial to learn a common language than it is to adapt content to that language.
Either you stick with your home language and get a small Wikipedia without much content, or you learn a common language with vastly more content and fact-checking. You not only loose out on Wikipedia, but a vast majority of the world's knowlege and interaction.
Am I the only one that has a problem with having 100 Wikipedias? Look at the massive effort it takes to just maintain one decent English Wikipedia article. Then multiply that. I see it as a massive duplication of effort (a phrase I seem to use often around here...). Maybe I'm just a self-centered American with a superiority complex.
Someone tell me I'm wrong (I'm serious, if I'm incorrect or being a dick tell me)
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