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

[David Goodman]

The foundation's programmers have the technical power to define the
experience of all aspects of the site however they please. They cannot
be prevented from having this power, but they nonetheless   must not
use it, except for the most mundane details of day to day maintenance.
Their role is to carry out the wishes of the community to the extent
it is   feasible.  They will obviously need to figure out how to
accommodate different and conflicting wishes, but it is not up to them
to establish the priorities.

This is true also of the specialists, such as the interface team:
their role is to advise the community, not determine the results, and
they should accept that their advice however excellent  will
nonetheless not always be followed. This is especially true for the
specialists who do not have prior experience with WP, and can
therefore not be expected to know the customs and way of thinking that
prevails, and that sets the limits for what any individual can do by
their own decision. Certainly they can be expected to learn it, but
they must expect their understanding of it to be always corrected by
the actual community.

For example, they seem to have operated on the assumption that 1% use
of a feature, or the use of an uncommon platform, is something that
can be ignored.  This may be a common assumption in many settings,
including some I am quite familiar with,  but it is not in WP.

On Sat, Jun 5, 2010 at 5:10 PM, Austin Hair <adhair at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Jun 5, 2010 at 10:00 PM, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell at gmail.com> wrote:
>> In short, there is little reason for a sophisticated user to complain
>> about this for their own benefit.
>>
>> I think the people here are speaking up for the sake of the readers,
>> and for the sake of preserving the best of the existing design
>> principles used on the site.  I know I am.
>
> I don't mean to detract from Greg's truly excellent e-mail by replying
> to just part of it, but I know that this is the case for me—I still
> use the Classic theme, restyled with my own CSS and Javascript, and
> all of the interwiki links are right where they were before.  Vector
> doesn't affect me personally, but I see its impact on people around me
> all day.
>
> For the love of all that is virtuous, please at least read everything
> this man says.
>
> Austin
>
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-- 
David Goodman, Ph.D, M.L.S.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:DGG