[Foundation-l] Language Review Committee

[Jeff V. Merkey]

Mark Williamson wrote:

>>Then the native speakers who are from the culture that concerns the language
>>should be the ones setting up the wiki, running the wiki, and deciding
>>who will or will
>>not be contributors.  It should not be done by folks who do not speak
>>the language or do not know the culture.
>>    
>>
>
>They *are* the ones doing this. The discussion here is about
>restrictions being placed on these people.
>What we *are* discussing is whether or not these people should be
>burdened with translating LanguageBat-ltg.php before they even get
>their own Wikipedia. Nothing more, nothing less. 
>
>  
>
Completing a language file is reasonable and must be done.  Period.  
There are XML dumps and other
logostics reasons why this makes sense. 

>>By way of example, there's a lot of Dine folks who are interested in working
>>on Wikipedia projects,  but in my discussions with them, they have
>>little interest in
>>getting involved with non-natives with their language, and a lot of it
>>deals with control issues
>>and the lack of desire to interact with people outside of their culture.
>>    
>>
>
>If they wish to work on the Navajo Wikipedia, I would see no problem
>with finding a suitable sysop who is a native speaker of that
>language, and if they wish I would be willing to leave right away.
>There is no need to deal with non-speakers or non fluent speakers or
>"outsiders".
>  
>

I don't think it is all on you, and the issue goes beyond having admins 
who are not speakers.  Dine people
have an aversion to dealing with what they term "white culture".  They 
would look at it more like "Do I want
to help Wikipedia take in money by using our language without our 
consent".   There's also the whole elder
authority thing to deal with as well.  60 year old Dine speakers are not 
going to hang around long if they get
chased around by trolls and 18 year old admins.

>I'm not sure what your point is here. 
>
You got the point, you just disagree with it.  That's ok though.  

Jeff