[Wikimedia-l] conversations between WMF and non-English projects

[Deryck Chan]

On 29 July 2012 22:57, Nathan <nawrich at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sun, Jul 29, 2012 at 5:39 PM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
> > On 29 July 2012 22:33, Steven Walling <steven.walling at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > I can see how you would think this if you're not involved with these
> > > communities, but a clear majority of the active editors on Portuguese
> > > Wikipedia are in fact Brazilian. The description given is not
> inaccurate.
> >
> > While I may not be involved in the Portuguese Wikipedia, I do have a
> > masters degree in mathematics, so I can reliably inform you that
> > "majority" is not the same as "all".
> >
> > The WMF tends to employ smart people, so I assume that whoever wrote
> > that bit of the plan knew that that wasn't the most accurate way of
> > describing the activity. So, my question to you is: why did they
> > describe it that way? Why say "Portuguese Wikipedia’s top
> > contributors" when "a selection of Wikipedians in Brazil" would have
> > been far more accurate?
> >
> >
> Can your masters degree in mathematics point out where in Wikimedia's
> statement it said "all" or implied anything other than having met some of
> Portuguese Wikipedia's top contributors? Not sure what the big deal is.
>

I think the big deal is that, the annual plan used the phrase "Portuguese
Wikipedia’s top contributors" unqualified, but Thomas pointed out that the
selection of Wikipedians who met with WMF staff was not a representative
sample because only Brazilians were represented.