steve vertigo wrote:
Theres a fundamental rule in journalism That youre missing Tarq -- (and Wikipedians ARE journalists -- in the best sense, perhaps) The rule is:
"Get Something On the Page -- Period."
Imagine a big burly fat guy with a cigar yelling that in your ear as your typing it up against your deadline.
Now imagine you hand him this:
"Wikipedia is project encyclopedia working together. It is available many languages and is permitted with the GNU Free Manual Permission."
And so on.
Burly Fat Guy: "You're fired, Vertigo!"
It's far better to "get something on the page" by:
1. writing your own article (even if it's just a stub) 2. doing the translation yourself
Im not saying that I can go around recommending machtransware as a cure for cancer -- I am saying it is fast arriving -- and can be useful to some people -- those talented at turning crap into custard. If one is not so talented -- and does not wish to be bothered with using it -- this should not translate into them being bothered that its by others being used. Is regular and assisted use can solve the issue of perhaps seeding a modest degree of interest in some of the other WP's -- which remain as they are, stillborn. Translate that.
If one is so talented, why couldn't he or she could use machine translation as an translation aid individually, without putting the unaltered results into Wikipedia? Given where the technology is at this point, this seems to be the prudent choice.
Stephen G.