[Foundation-l] Klassical Chinese

[David Gerard]

2008/9/11 mboverload <mboverloadlister at gmail.com>:

> Am I the only one that has a problem with having 100 Wikipedias?  Look
> at the massive effort it takes to just maintain one decent English
> Wikipedia article.  Then multiply that.  I see it as a massive
> duplication of effort (a phrase I seem to use often around here...).
> Maybe I'm just a self-centered American with a superiority complex.
> Someone tell me I'm wrong (I'm serious, if I'm incorrect or being a
> dick tell me)


You're wrong in that volunteer effort is not fungible the way employee
effort is. Volunteers will work 10x as hard as any employee ... but
only on what they want to. So there are people who will be highly
motivated to write an encyclopedia in their native language that
wouldn't be in another language, even if it's that century's
international language of choice.

Also, languages don't substitute cleanly for each other in this
manner. I believe Arwel Parry explained this here a while ago - pretty
much everyone who speaks Welsh also speaks perfect English, but Welsh
is his native language so he still thinks (and hence writes) better in
it. (Arwel, correct me if I've stated this wrongly!)

It's not a duplication of effort because the effort wouldn't be there
if people weren't personally motivated to put it in.


- d.