2007/10/27, GerardM gerard.meijssen@gmail.com:
It is wrong to suggest that the User Interface is not a vital component of a successful Wikipedia. With some regularity projects are voted to be closed down. They are typically programs that do not have a good localisation, they are typically programs that do not have a community. They are typically Wikipedias that have been started prematurely.
So? I think you're having it backward now. Yes, projects that are voted to be closed down typically do not have a good localisation. Why is that? Not because the lack of a localisation causes the lack of a community, but the lack of a community causes the lack of a localisation. Localisations are there on projects where someone has worked on localisation. That implies that there is someone working on something, and projects where someone is working on something are usually not closed down. Projects that have over 50 articles on different plant species are also usually not voted down. Projects that have a bureaucrat are usually not voted down. Projects that have an active village pump are usually not voted down. Why require a localisation, but not 50 plant species, a bureaucrat or an active village pump?
Yes, there are Wikipedias that are doing fine, the issue is that many people are upset by Wikipedias failing. We lose support for adding new languages with more projects failing.
We lose even more support for adding new languages by making the adding of new languages a long, bureaucratic, drawn out process.
What we aim for in new Wikipedias is project that provide good information to the people. We should not expect people to read any other language. A Wikipedia is there to provide people with knowledge and for this an appropriate user interface is essential. As long as the User Interface is not localised it is not yet ready to go life for the people to find information in their language.
I disagree. Should not the people of a Wikipedia make the decision what is important to them, and what is readable? I think a Wikipedia with a beginning of content and a non-localized or partly-localized interface is more useful than one where every little text is translated but there is just one page.
Stop the language prevention committee!!