[Foundation-l] 80% of our projects are failing

[Finn Rindahl]

I'd like to ecco (is that an eEnglish word..?) Michael Finney here. Most
people who engage them self in a small language wikimedia projects will
sooner or later participate in projects like en:wp and commons as well - and
thus both learn more about the "facts of reality" as well as communicating
with others in a (for them) foreign language.

They may of course also learn the not so pleasant fact of reality that
native English speakers unfortunately sometimes come across as a rather
arrogant lot (an attitude also unfortunately often also adapted by
dutch/scandinavians etc who often are more comfortable using English than
other language groups - I've been arrogant myself at times)

Finn Rindahl (mainly nowiki&commons)

2008/12/1 Michael Finney <finney.md at gmail.com>

> Jimbo:
> Thank you for your comments. As a person who manages a small wiki project
> and two language forks from it, I found some of the comments very
> disturbing... almost frightening that such exist. Your comments re-affirm
> my
> confidence in the Wikimedia Foundation and its purpose.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Mike
>
> On Mon, Dec 1, 2008 at 1:24 PM, Jimmy Wales <jwales at wikia-inc.com> wrote:
>
> > Geni wrote:
> > >>> "The mission of the Wikimedia Foundation is to empower and engage
> > >>> people around the world " first line of the mission statement. By
> > >>> actively promoting minority languages you lock more people into them
> > >>> which is not consistent with trying to empower them.
> >
> > I wrote:
> > >> I do not share geni's views at all.
> >
> > Thomas Dalton wrote:
> > > It doesn't seem that anyone does...
> >
> >
> > I should add at the same time that I think that it is a good thing for
> > people to try to learn a relevant global language in addition to their
> > local language, with the choice depending upon personal context.
> >
> > In many parts of the world and for many people, English is an excellent
> > choice of a second language.  In other parts of the world (Francophone
> > Africa for example), French is an excellent choice.  Chinese might be
> > good for some people.  Russian for others.  Hindi for others.  There are
> > many variables.
> >
> > And I hope that Wikipedia is helpful to people both in learning about
> > the facts of reality (usually most comfortably done in your mother
> > tongue) and in learning another language.  I don't see these goals as
> > being in competition at all, but rather mutually reinforcing.
> >
> > --Jimbo
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > foundation-l mailing list
> > foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
> >
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>