From: Toby Bartels The Cunctator wrote:
Much better said than I could.
Thanks!
The only thing I'd say different is the text of a single language can't be a perfect encyclopedia--only the
work
that exists in all languages is the perfect encyclopedia.
Ah, but both of these are goals that we will always approach but never achieve. I strive to make Wikipedia (as a whole) the best encyclopedia
possible,
and I strive to make [[en:]] the best Anglophone encyclopedia
possible.
Neither will ever happen, but ''both'' are our goals!
(Also the goal for [[fr:]] to be the best Francophone encyclopedia,
etc.
But personally, I write almost exclusively on [[en:]]. That is the ''individual'' Wikipedian's parochial interests.)
I've always been and will continue to be a strong advocate for considering Wikipedia to be the multilanguage project.
I think it's perfectly fine for individual Wikipedians to have parochial interests. But I think it is wrong for them to expect Wikipedia as a community to promote parochial interests.
I know I'm on the losing side of this issue, but while ethnic groups have given us lots of interesting cuisine, they've also justified a few too many deaths for my taste.
And when we as a community promote the differentiation of the language versions--as entire projects--based on assumptions of distinctly different backgrounds and interests of the readership--we're differentiating our community by ethnic groups.
You should take all of the above with the caveat that if I thought that any differentiation by language was evil, I'd only work on the Esperanto Wikipedia.
What I'm saying is that our goals as a community should be higher, more neutral, less parochial, than our goals as individuals. Celebrate our differences as individuals and celebrate our commonalities as a community.