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

[dpbsmith at verizon.net]

>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.

Offenders?

>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.

Why? Every day, thousands of discussions take place on Wikipedia of which I 
have no knowledge, because I don't read them. 

If I were actively engaged in editing a page, AND other people were 
conducting discussions which I could not understand, AND the result of those 
discussions were edits that I did not agree with, AND THEN they refused to 
engage with me in genuine discussions in English of the points in dispute--
then, sure, I'd take it to RfC.

If they're editing a page written in English, there's a reasonable 
presumption that they know enough English to talk to me, so refusal to do so 
can be reasonable interpreted as "failure to engage." 

But my beef would be "failure to engage," not "discussion amongst themselves 
in a language I don't understand." 

Besides, bad as they are, the automated translation services such as 
babelfish.altavista.com are usually good enough to at least understand the 
subject being discussed in a foreign language, and tell whether it's actually 
germane to anything I need to know about.

(We allow Cabal members to communicate with each other via secret code words 
and steganography in Wikipedia images, so how is this different?)