[WikiEN-l] Discussion on English Wikipedia in languages other than English

[David Friedland]

I have noted an increase of discussion on English Wikipedia in languages 
other than English lately. For now, I'll forgo naming languages and 
listing particular offenders here.

Do we have a policy on this? Should we?

My opinion is that we should not allow or least sternly frown upon 
discussion on the English Wikipedia in languages other than English.

Is this racist/anti-nationalist/Anglo-centric? I don't know. I like to 
consider myself open-minded, but there is something very ominous to me 
about discussions in foreign languages on the English Wikipedia. Of 
course, probably the vast majority of such discussions are completely 
innocuous, but the rest of us have no way of knowing that unless we know 
what the discussions are about. There is little more frustating that 
having a conversation (in some cases which is clearly about you) hidden 
in plain sight.

Of course I am symphathetic to users whose first language is not English 
and for whom discussing in English may be difficult. However, I am 
hesitant to extend such sympathy to being permissive of non-English 
discussion on the English Wikipedia, which is, after all, written in 
English. In the cases I have seen, the editors who are discussing in a 
foreign language have demonstrated elsewhere that they are competent 
writers of English, so it seems especially pernicious when they "lapse" 
into another language, as though they are hiding something.

The policy question is what to do about users who insist on carrying out 
discussion on the English Wikipedia in languages other than English. 
Users who discuss in other languages should be invited to translate 
their discussion (and remove the discussion in the original language to 
discourage responses in the original language) or have them removed. We 
should not remove such discussions summarily, of course, but after a set 
period of time given to the user to remove their discussion, informing 
them on their user page, etc.

The policy should not apply to user pages and user talk pages, but 
non-English discussion on those pages should at least be strongly 
discouraged. It creates an atmosphere of distrust.

We don't permit articles in foreign languages, so why should we permit 
discussion in foreign languages?

Please commence with the vilifying of me for being an insensitive 
Anglo-centric asshole.

- David [[User:Nohat]]