[Foundation-l] Translatewiki illustrates how low internationalisation is in the priorities of the Wikimedia Foundation

[Teofilo]

2011/1/27 Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com>:
> One very powerful reason why you should not localise locally is because
> there is no way that you will know locally when a message gets changed. The
> consequence is that the quality of locally localised messages do not get the
> same quality assurance as it gets in translatewiki.
>
> So in essence, localising at translatewiki.net does enhance the quality of
> the localisation. Only messages with changes that give specific information
> for a local wiki should be localised locally.
> Thanks,
>      GerardM


When I hear "there is no way that you will know locally when a message
gets changed", many warning lights are flashing in my cockpit. A
non-Wikimedia community has the power of changing things within a
Wikimedia website without the Wikimedia people being warned
beforehand.

According the New Statesman (1), Jimbo Wales used the word
"self-reliance" in a comment about the Wikipedia spirit. In my view,
relying on a non-Wikimedia website and community is not self-reliance.

Today only the translations are expelled to a non-Wikimedia website
and community.

Tomorrow, will the same happen to bugzilla ?

One of the strenghts of the Wikimedia projects is the reactivity of
the community. When there is something wrong, people file a bug.

If the bug-filing place is moved to a far away place, the reactivity
might be lower (your comment that "there are very few issues between
the translators" might mean that the reactivity is low). If it remains
high, it means Wikimedia is providing volunteers to a non-Wikimedia
community. It means Wikimedia sends its volunteers to work on
non-Wikimedia projects. Is Wikimedia a volunteer hiring agency for a
variety of wikis not sharing the same purposes ?

(1) http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/01/jimmy-wales-wikipedia-vote