[Foundation-l] The status of smaller languages on the Wikimedia Commons

[Delphine Ménard]

On 5/4/06, folengo at netcourrier.com <folengo at netcourrier.com> wrote:
> Since yesterday, smaller languages have been removed from the multilingual links displayed on the Commons' Main Page. Most removed languages are languages with a smaller Wikipedia community, like Arabic, Indonesian, Welsh, Danish, Korean, Romanian, Russian, Vietnamese, Turkish, but a few larger languages, like Spanish, Japanese or Swedish have been removed too.
>
> I cannot spend my time reverting the page, so I ask for your help.
>
> The initiator of the change contends that the communities he punishes have not been quick enough to update the page in their language. To this I object that he did not seriously take contact with these communities and ask them in a polite manner to perform the updates he wishes.
>
> Do you think imposing smaller languages the same pace as that of the larger ones is fair ?
>
> Couldn't we have, like in sports different categories (junior, senior, men, women seldom compete in the same categories in sports)  with expectations and rules differentiated in function of the size of a  language community ?


Who would have ever thought I would actually agree with Teofilo on anything? :-)

While I believe I see the reasoning about getting rid of the "smaller"
languages on the main page, while I understand the problem of having
outdated main pages, I totally agree that smaller languages should not
be penalized in accessing commons.

I am not going to argue that Mediawiki is not fit for a multilingual
website today, although that is probably the primary problem of
commons.

This said, I believe that a mid-way can be found.

How about launching a massive translation rally (A translsation of the
week maybe?) of Commons main page that would translate in smaller
languages a "default" type of main page that does not need to be
updated?

I am thinking a page that states the purpose of commons, displays pic
of the week and media of the week and maybe a disclaimer that says
that English is the default language for current policies and such,
please refer to it to understand how commons work. Nothing fancy, but
at least with the main important pages (even in English) displayed and
the useful links.

Cheers,

Delphine


--
~notafish