Hum, you are very right with language issue But, even if this list is in english, it is the main list, so issues discussed here are likely to impact all wikipedias
Then, we should stop this. Please don't claim this is a policy then you've got to conform that.
Besides, that the french silliness with comma hunting that has been going on for about a month, that explain this subject being raised again. But the issue is not new :-)
My opinion is simple enough. We should stop governing non- English wikipedias by English'd government.
Therefore, the discussion here should be irrelevant and we should move this to each wikipedia's village pump.
Yes and no. It is not irrelevant, for some people thrive on monitoring the number of articles, and many internationals are eager to go up in the rank. For those, it is important that the numbering technique be the same, for the comparison to stay valid.
Why do we have to compare in the first place? We are not doing race where who reaches first milestone among non- English editions.
On the other hand, it would be interesting that discussions go in parallele in pump (of coffee shop :-)) for everyone to feel involved
Not feel but all of people must be involved. Unless that, we can claim the consensus is based on the public.
My feeling is that counting technique should maybe be related to the language family.
That is my point. Couting should vary according to the language or something like family.
By the way, I posted an issue at village pump of ja.wikipedia. Hopefully they give me (not us, though) more thoughts.