[WikiEN-l] Babel template en-5

[Steve Bennett]

On 02/05/06, Alphax (Wikipedia email) <alphasigmax at gmail.com> wrote:
> It's actually considered rude on hold conversations in one language on a
> project written in another, simply for the reason that most other users
> of that project won't be able to read what's being said. IIRC there was
> some fuss about vote-stacking in other languages...

I can understand that, particularly if the people in question do both
speak English to an acceptable degree. But, in terms of "getting the
encyclopaedia written", I don't see a major problem with two editors
carrying on a conversation in Lugandan while debating how best to
write an article about Ugandan culture, literature etc...

Perhaps the unspoken ban on languages other than English contributes
to the "systemic bias"?

> Yes. See [[Special:Preferences]]. I've got accounts (and have edited on)
>  the French, German, Italian and Polish Wikipedias (doing image
> replacement mostly), even though I have no understanding of Italian or
> Polish, and can barely remember a few words of French and German from
> school.

Oh, thanks!

> Babelfish? :)

What a pity that babelfish, in the 6 or 7 years I've been using it,
hasn't added any significant number of new languages.

> Different social customs as well.

Yep. Minefield.

> Learning other languages would be a good start. I find it extremely
> distasteful that native English speakers (especially certain people from
> a country which shall not be named) expect that everyone speaks their
> language, and worse, their particular version of it.

Definitely, but learning 20+ languages is no easy task! Other than
French, I can read Spanish more or less, and can pick out bits of
German. But even to get to basic textual conversational competency is
a fair challenge. I'm keen to have a go though :)

Steve