Pete/Pcb21 wrote:
Wikipedia is an attempt at making a real multilanguage
encyclopedia.
I agree this.
I do think though that getting from that point to "we must have www.wikipedia.org in N languages with virtually no content" is a leap of faith more than a leap of logic.
One could take it as a "marketing opportunity" - think of Apple's OS X install process, which also has the delicate task of getting the user's language without causing confusion, rage, or worst of all, a support call. :-)
It starts off with snappy music and flashy graphics, with floating "Welcome" signs in different languages, then goes to a plain text menu saying something "use XXX as the main language" written in each language, with English at the top. (No flags, BTW.)
While a WP portal doesn't necessarily need music and animations, a graphically-attractive portal should be able to get people more excited about WP, while at the same time unobtrusively directing them to the language of choice. As several people have observed, most users should only ever see the portal once, so it's much more about first impressions than daily use.
As an example of positive spin, I think even a parochial English speaker would appreciate an encyclopedia whose material on Mexico or Greece has been worked on and crosschecked by bilingual natives of those places. (Yes, I know that argument has all kinds of holes, but marketing is as much about emotional response as logic.)
Another idea is to illustrate the portal with a collage built from our featured pictures, particularly ones evoking different parts of the globe. People are then choosing preferred language while feeling, for a moment anyway, like citizens of the world.
Stan