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

[Gerard Meijssen]

Hoi,
Sorry but there are a few people who have the power and who do the work.
When an organisation does contribute at translatewiki.net, that is exactly
what they do. When you want to contribute you are welcome, not because you
are a Wikipedian but because you contribute to the localisation of software
in your language.

The people who localise are volunteers. When someone pays people to do a
translation, that is none of our concern or business. When a translation is
done badly, we welcome people to proof read and improve. When there is a
systemic difference ie formal versus informal language use or a specific
orthography like UK vs US English, people can ask to localise in a specific
way and when it makes sense it is granted.

Please do understand that the WMF does accept the
translatewiki.netlocalisation because our community has earned it
because of the quality of
its work. Our developers are MediaWiki developers because of the merit of
their work.

We are always looking for people willing to do good. There are over 300
languages and orthographies we support. The quality is the quality of the
people who make a difference. The people who make a difference are the ones
who do the work not the ones who are known for talk.
Thanks,
       GerardM

On 28 January 2011 16:08, Teofilo <teofilowiki at gmail.com> wrote:

> 2011/1/28 Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com>:
> > When the CIA uses MediaWiki and it does, we are
> > happy because as a result we do and did get feedback on the use of our
> > project. When the CIA wants to use LocalisationUpdate and its people help
> > localise at translatewiki.net we could not be more happy.
>
> As I said, I have nothing about anybody reusing the contents. However
> I am against entering into a community with anybody. I want to enter
> only communities with which I share some values.
>
> Let's forget about the CIA. I have nothing against the CIA.
>
> Let's imagine a group with non-democratic values provides translators
> to Translatewiki. Then that group has a legitimacy to have a say in
> the way Translatewiki is managed. Then that group can impose its power
> structure in the management of Translatewiki. Then for some
> unexplained reason, they hire bad translators, who really do bad work.
> Can I say "hello, I am from Wikipedia, and I think your translation is
> wrong, please change it". No I can't. It is too late. They have
> imposed their non-democratic power structure, and there is no way to
> change what people superior to me in their non-democratic hierarchical
> power structure are imposing. In a non-democratic power structure the
> only thing you can do is shut up.
>
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