Conversation from Talk pages:

ANGELA:I've just seen your post to the intlwiki mailing list. I can't reply there as I'm not currently subscribing to it and I've forgotten my password to re-subscribe, so I'll reply here instead. Feel free to copy this to the list if you want to.

I disagree with creating articles which consist only of interlanguage links and I tend to delete such pages from the English Wikipedia. It wastes someone's time if they follow a link thinking they will get some useful information, only to find a blank page. It may be useful for those who want to write articles in other languages, but frustrating and confusing for those trying to read Wikipedia. Linking should occur after the article is written, not before. Angela 21:59, 16 Aug 2003 (UTC)

STEVERTIGO:Paraphrasing what you said,(apologies :) in a different context: {I disagree with creating stub articles which consist only of a couple paragraphs and I tend to delete such pages from the English Wikipedia. It wastes someone's time if they follow a link thinking they will get some useful information, only to find a unprofessional and incomplete article. It may be useful for those who want to add or contribute to these articles, but frustrating and confusing for those trying to read Wikipedia. Professional quality should be attained before not after the article is written.} ??sv 22:20, Aug 16, 2003 (UTC) P.S -- I wrote back to Tarq on http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/intlwiki-l/2003-August/001999.html

ANGELA:But a stub can contain useful information. IL links do not. They only tell you that there may or may not be some info in some other language somewhere. A blank page is confusing. A page with only a little bit of info is not. Angela

STEVERTIGO:Bu shi ! A stub can also contain useless information -- the point is not to generalize what stubs are and what they are good for. Some stubs are better than others. -- "IL links do not"-- Bu shi ! If you look at an page with just a title and an IL link--and you cant read that language--just hover over the ILlink! Bingo. You can do it right now on the ar:wikipedia. Thats one situation (as unusual as it is) where what you said is not true. There are many more. Where in the rules does it say you cant put x in front of X? In fact in some ways its better that making a whole system and then trying to link them up in some way -- each should give the other ideas about how to structure stuff organization. Do you mind if I load this talk up to the mail? -S- P.s -- mail Walter to reset your password intlwiki-l-owner AT Wikipedia DOT org

ANGELA: Hovering over links is only useful if you are in the encyclopedia of a language you don't read. Why you be there in the first place? If you are in en: then a link which tells you the page title in Arabic won't help. I agree with linking the WPs together, but linking up a load of blank pages is not useful. The red links are there to tell you a page does not exist. If you put a link in, it makes it look like the page does exist. re: load this talk up to the mail... I don't mind. re: mail Walter. I already clicked the "send me a new password button" but it hasn't done anything. I shall do as you suggest.

STEVERTIGO:IL links/usefulness - I respectfully disagree. TBC-

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