On Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 6:52 AM, Andre Engels andreengels@gmail.com wrote:
On Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 12:42 PM, Mark Williamson node.ue@gmail.com wrote:
The idea that people prefer one language to another does not mean they will not read articles in another language and find them just as useful, if not moreso.
I certainly prefer English to Spanish, but I have used the Spanish Wikipedia on many occasions, especially when the article there was longer or more informative.
Sure, that will happen, but mostly when the alternative Wikipedia is of a comparable size. A relatively small language will have that advantage so rarely that people will not habitually check for it. People will go from Italian to French or English for such a reason, but I think that those who will go to Sicilian or Napolitan are those that will just be either prefer that language to Italian if the same content was available in both languages, or had no clear preference between them.
-- André Engels, andreengels@gmail.com _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Understood, but it is not the role of the community to judge that before embarking. As Mark said: gauging potential readers is a bad metric. You saying "No one will use it because they prefer X language" is that exact argument.
Assuming a language is a valid one (ie: Not fake, not used by only by five people who are 90yo and near death), I see no harm in provisionally accepting it. A tiny project is insignificant in terms of space required. If it tanks, then nothing was really wasted except a valiant effort to embark on a new language. If it gets big, so much the better, we helped further a new project.
-Chad.