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