[Foundation-l] language proposal policy. let's continue the work

[Chad]

On Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 6:52 AM, Andre Engels <andreengels at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 12:42 PM, Mark Williamson <node.ue at gmail.com> wrote:
>> The idea that people prefer one language to another does not mean they
>> will not read articles in another language and find them just as
>> useful, if not moreso.
>>
>> I certainly prefer English to Spanish, but I have used the Spanish
>> Wikipedia on many occasions, especially when the article there was
>> longer or more informative.
>
> Sure, that will happen, but mostly when the alternative Wikipedia is
> of a comparable size. A relatively small language will have that
> advantage so rarely that people will not habitually check for it.
> People will go from Italian to French or English for such a reason,
> but I think that those who will go to Sicilian or Napolitan are those
> that will just be either prefer that language to Italian if the same
> content was available in both languages, or had no clear preference
> between them.
>
>
> --
> André Engels, andreengels at gmail.com
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Understood, but it is not the role of the community to judge that
before embarking. As Mark said: gauging potential readers is a bad
metric. You saying  "No one will use it because they prefer X language"
is that exact argument.

Assuming a language is a valid one (ie: Not fake, not used by only by
five people who are 90yo and near death), I see no harm in provisionally
accepting it. A tiny project is insignificant in terms of space required.
If it tanks, then nothing was really wasted except a valiant effort to
embark on a new language. If it gets big, so much the better, we helped
further a new project.

-Chad.