On 10/10/02 2:15 PM, "Jimmy Wales" jwales@bomis.com wrote:
The Cunctator wrote:
I object strenuously. This is not a slam-dunk good idea at all. Please hold off at least a good while before doing this.
O.k., let's wait.
What are the objections?
The primary objection is that this hasn't really been discussed. That said:
1) There isn't a clear picture of what overall policy this fits in with;
2) Whether whatever that overall policy is well-thought out and correct;
3) What the consequences of the change from a usability perspective have not been delineated;
4) "A new intro page can later be set up at convenience" is probably not how we want to do this;
5) There are real, concrete benefits to having a default and preferred interface/language;
In other words, the pros and cons of such an act should be explicitly and clearly listed. There are many reasons that www.google.com, www.dmoz.org, etc. (which all have multilanguage settings) have English as the default, and it's not just that the servers are US-based).
Once that's done, we can weigh priorities.
I personally think a better focus right now for the developers is to work on maximum integration of the different language wikis. If the backend is better integrated, frontend issues become easier to deal with.
A big question that we are in the process of resolving now is whether we want to think of Wikipedia as a single project that has multiple translations, or as a bunch of largely independent projects specific to particular nations and language sets. I think the first conception is healthier and more productive over the long term. We really should think about this issue before we take broad actions that touch upon it.