[Foundation-l] hiding interlanguage links by default is a Bad Idea, part 2

[John Vandenberg]

On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 5:48 AM, Aryeh Gregor
<Simetrical+wikilist at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 2, 2010 at 2:50 PM, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Who cares if people click them a lot?  The space they formally
>> occupied is filled with nothing now.
>
> Interface clutter is not psychologically free.  Empty space is better
> than space filled with mostly-useless controls.  Whether these
> particular controls are worth it I don't know, but the general
> principle of hiding seldom-used things is sound.

They are not "mostly-useless controls"; they are there because
_building_ content _in every language_ is our mission.

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Our_projects

Missing interwikis are a valuable cue that a block is missing.

--
John Vandenberg