On 27/03/07, Andre Engels andreengels@gmail.com wrote:
2007/3/27, Erik Moeller erik@wikimedia.org:
As far as Gerard and I have talked about this issue and I understand it, it seems like a sensible policy to me. If you want a new language, it should not be that difficult to at least prepare the groundwork for MediaWiki localization before you start. If you cannot even get that organized, how are you ever going to write a useful encyclopedia?
What if your interest is in writing an encyclopedia, and not in translating software? If you have 10 people happily writing articles, but none of them having interest in going through all 200+ MediaWiki-pages, does that mean that it can never be an encyclopedia?
Exactly. There is a lot of crud in the MediaWiki messages. Even when you start a new wiki in English, how many people go through the messages to localise them and create all the referenced pages such as Project:About? (I sure don't.) As opposed to, how many dive into the exciting project of content creation?
Why is localisation so important? The messages will be translated as the wiki progresses. I am not convinced that localisation before launch is more likely to ensure a successful project. Is there some research or some cases that show this?
regards, Brianna user:pfctdayelise