[Foundation-l] Priorities

[Mathias Damour]

Hi,

Gregory Maxwell a écrit :
> 
> I don't think that people understand the immense cost involved. The
> Wikipedias in dying langauges are tiny because the labor needed to
> make them comprehensive does not exist in volunteer form. ... which
> should not be shocking, since if *a language is dying people will not
> be excited about writing in it*.

You should consider that the main cost being writing articles, it is not only made for but _by_ one language speakers.
I would go further and say that it's not only the fact to have the content (articles) available to read that helps to "save" a language but the very work to write them as well.

> There is an enormous manpower cost in creating a usable and
> comprehensive Wikipedia. Due to the volunteer nature of the project we
> do not see this cost but it still exists.

Due to the nature of the project, people can be pleased not only to use the content, but to build it, so it is a big work, but I would'nt call it exactly a cost.

> When we talk about using Wikimedia funding to preserve dying
> languages, which don't have the volunteer pools needed to build
> Wikipedia naturally, we are talking about bringing that huge cost on
> to the foundation.

Did anyone but you told about people being paid rather than being volunteer to edit small language Wikipedia ?

Mathias Damour