--- The Cunctator cunctator@kband.com wrote:
On 10/12/02 1:28 PM, "Anthere" anthere5@yahoo.com wrote: <snip>>
The www.wikipedia.org is a very important address. Must be used accordingly. What is important in wikipedia (for users) is first of all *content*.
Hence
it is maybe not best that this address is used for
the
foundation, which should come far after contents.
The actual page as proposed is not containing any content, just info about the concept of Wikipedia (very important I agree nevertheless) and
redirection
to other places.
Exactly. This is the basic problem with the "portal" concept.
<snip interesting discussion> > > The idea is just to > * provide content > * put current events coverage or background in the > front, something other encyc can't offer > * made obvious several langages are available > * put each of these langages at the same level > * generate a little bit more of competition and > collaboration between each langage if they want to > have at least one page in their langage here > > (just thinking here, I wrote these articles on Maurice > Papon and Bertrand Delano? in english but didnot > really bothered to translate them in french :-)))
That is the problem with putting languages on the same level. (All the other ideas above are just right.) Having multiple versions of the same information, whether in different languages or in multiple entries in one language, is detrimental to the progress of the project. At the same time, only being in one language is detrimental to the project.
This implies better definition of the word "version" maybe. In french, version means basically translation. We recently changed our welcome text to indicate the french wikipedia was the equivalent of the en.wikipedia (instead of it being the version of the en.wiki)
Though npov states that goal, I believe the majority of the articles will never be the same. We ain't machines, and nobody will take care to review over and over articles in each langage to check they are the same. This would be 1)no fun 2)limiting creativity. Picking info is one thing, translating it is another.
After the article on Papon was reedited by several people, I copied it on the french wiki, and mostly let other french translate it. I tell you, within 2 weeks, the en. and the fr. article may look similar but *are not* the same. Some interested might check our http://fr.wikipedia.com/wiki.cgi?Jacques-Yves_Cousteau, much more npov than the en. one.
multiple entries in one language, is detrimental to the progress of the project.
And I don't think it being detrimental to the project. In the long term, I believe each langage could get maybe more specific about some subjects. Just as some fields are more covered in one langage than another for the sake of human knowledge communication. Music by Germans, Romance by Italians, whatever. Say, it is possible that en.wiki has a small article about "Le Festival de Cannes" and we have a very comprehensive one. Does that make sense for english to have a very comprehensive one ? Does that not make sense then to have a long "current event" on www.wikipedia.org in french and a short in english ?
An example of how to attempt to compromise between those issues for the www home page, for example, would be to keep the current event links in English but:
- at the top of the page list all the languages in
their native tongue (I had added the more complete list, but Mav reverted it since some of them were rarely used)
Are you proposing just the same page than the current one here, with just all languages instead of a small dozen ? Where is the compromise ? I see very little difference with the current situation. If what worries you is the mis-representation we would have over the english representation with what I propose, I need to reassure you. We have very little "current news" right now, and I don't expect we will have much more until we are bigger. So it is very likely we would only have a couple of links on the page. That should do for a representation proportional to our size I guess...
- add a section for highlighting entries in other
languages
Can you explain that more ? Where is the section ? How to access it ? How do you plan to take into account further development of say...the german wiki is her links are relegated somewhere and not very visible ?
(Note that 2) would be greatly helped if we figure out ways to integrate Recent Changes.)
I totally agree
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