Hoi,<br>There is indeed a lot of prose on the English Wikipedia. Not all of it is brilliant. <br><br>Given that Wikipedia projects evolve, what you have seen last year is not what you will see today. When you follow the English Wikipedia, a day is not good if there is no &quot;drama of the day&quot; and many people are unhappy about this. The neutrality of a Wikipedia is a function of the interaction between people and the effort invested in its content. The notion that the English Wikipedia will have it right is one that I do not subscribe to. What i do subscribe to is that there is a lot of effort needed to make a Wikipedia as good as it can be. <br>
<br>A lot of localisation effort is going on at Betawiki; this makes it even more plain. The work done today can be found on all Wikimedia Foundation projects tomorrow. This effort is not needed on the en.wikipedia The localisation in the many languages is so valuable because it shows the lovet that people have for their language.<br>
<br>The point of all this; nothing is automatic and things improve over time. They improve over time as more effort goes into a project.<br>Thanks,<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; GerardM<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Feb 12, 2008 4:16 PM, Nicholas &lt;<a href="mailto:nichalp.wiki@gmail.com">nichalp.wiki@gmail.com</a>&gt; wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">I have an observation to make. It is an excellent goal to make available content to the masses in regional languages, but does the content uphold the same principles as the english wiki does? viz- neutrality, brilliant prose and so on?<br>

<br>I remember accessing the Marathi wikipedia a year back, and content there was parochial and limited. Are there any suggestions to counteract this scenario from happening?<br><br>Regards,<br><font color="#888888">--Nicholas</font><div>
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On Feb 11, 2008 10:25 PM, Shiju Alex &lt;<a href="mailto:shijualexonline@gmail.com" target="_blank">shijualexonline@gmail.com</a>&gt; wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">

<div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">educated rich Indians thinking English is a &quot;better&quot; language than their own native language is a big obstacle to Indian Wikipedias...<br>


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<div>This is really true. This is one of the biggest obstacle that&nbsp;all the Indian language wikies are facing. I have also got the same type of answers as Pradeep got. </div>
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<div>Moreover,&nbsp;it is very sad to note that most of these educated rich&nbsp;young generation&nbsp;(read convent educated, city dwellers, and so on) are <b>Mother Tongue Illiterates</b>. <i>And they are feeling proud about it.</i></div>



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<div><b>Mother Tongue Illiteracy</b> is growing&nbsp;among educated&nbsp;Indians. This is one of the biggest obstacle.</div>
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<div>Regards</div><font color="#888888">
<div>Shiju Alex&nbsp;<br><br>&nbsp;</div></font><div><div></div><div>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 2/11/08, <b class="gmail_sendername">Pradeep Makineni</b> &lt;<a href="mailto:makineni.pradeep@gmail.com" target="_blank">makineni.pradeep@gmail.com</a>&gt; wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Thank you Gerard and Bernard.&nbsp; <br><br>I completely agree with your thoughts.&nbsp; These would be some of the points I will consider when someone asks me &quot;Why Wikipedia in Indian languages&quot;.&nbsp; I even have some examples where parents who send their kids to English medium schools, clarify their child&#39;s questions in their native language but not in English.&nbsp; This would show how it is easier to express in native language than in other languages, especially when we are talking with children. 
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<div class="gmail_quote">On Feb 10, 2008 10:27 PM, Bernard Massot &lt;<a href="mailto:bmassot@free.fr" target="_blank">bmassot@free.fr</a>&gt; wrote:<br>
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<div>On Sun, Feb 10, 2008 at 12:05:18PM +0530, Pradeep Makineni wrote:<br>&gt; What would you tell, if are going to answer these questions or<br>&gt; concerns? &nbsp;Note that most (or all) of wikipedians who contribute to<br>


&gt; Indian language wikipedias are fluent in English also. &nbsp;And I believe,<br>&gt; most of the folks who read (if any) these wikipedias are also fluent<br>&gt; in English.<br>&nbsp;</div>People always feel more comfortable with their native language.<br>


<br>Also, as you wrote, &quot;most of&quot; them also speak English, not all of them.<br>There are Indians who good access Internet but don&#39;t speak English. For<br>instance a part of NRIs living in non-English speaking countries.<br>


<br>AFAIK it&#39;s currently impossible to use computers with knowing only<br>Indian languages so that would make knowing English a prerequisite to<br>accessing Wikipedia. However we could imagine people having access to a<br>


printed version of Wikipedia.<br><br>But that&#39;s right, educated rich Indians thinking English is a &quot;better&quot;<br>language than their own native language is a big obstacle to Indian<br>Wikipedias...<br>--<br><font color="#888888">Bernard Massot<br>


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