Erik Moeller erik_moeller@gmx.de writes:
Besides, in both cases, I really don't see what the big deal is.
The big deal is: Do you see Wikipedia as a bunch of separate language projects which don't need a common frontpage or do you see it as a multilingual united project?
Next, I want to see the progress of all wikipedias at one central place and not somewhere hidden at an obscure statistics page somewhere at the english (Main?) wikipedia where nobody of the non-english contributors bothers to look for regularly.
Then create a translation of this page for your Wikipedia of choice. You'll have to do that anyway, or do you want the "central place" information to be English? I agree that the link (which would read "About the non-English Wikipedias" on the English page, "..non-German.." on the German page etc.) could be placed more prominently, perhaps right below the language bar.
This is currently being done by Magnus. The new draft checks language settings equally and prints the welcome message in the prefered language. with the difference that it is still one page for all wikipedias and not the redirected Polish with links to some others.
I think a wikipedia, each language on a separate URL without a centralized
- and a really centralized - main page is a bundle of balkanized
projects.
By the same argument, if I translate my website into many different languages and redirect the reader to his language by default, I create a balkanized website.
If you are a company wanting to satisfy your customers, this makes perfect sense. However I don't see Wikipedia as a company, I see it as something like an international organization and international organizations, see UN, EU, Vatican etc., don't use automatic redirects - and they don't seem to loose visitors because of this.
That doesn't make any sense. Balkanization comes from lack of communication between the different language maintainers and contributors, lack of consistent policies, use of different software etc.
and the lack of one common frontpage where all languages are equally and prominently represented.
We're making good progress in that area.
No. The embassies are as dead as they can be. The Spanish didn't rejoin and after this discussion I can perfectly understand their feelings.
what keeps you from bookmarking your language wikipedia? You don't have to start at the frontpage. What is so terribly wrong in showing prominently that we are a multilingual project instead of forcing a visitor directly in his presumed favorite language wikipedia without showing him that there is more to the project than the handful of articles in his language?
It's a questions of priorities. If you don't value true internationality, keep it like it is. An automatic redirect doesn't change one jota of the current situation of separate projects linked together by "other languages".
greetings, elian