Mailing List Archive

On 04/09/06, David Gerard <dgerard@gmail.com> wrote:
> According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 12.7% of people in
> the 2001 Census speak a language other than English at home. Full
> stats:

http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/D3310116.NSF/85255e31005a1918852556c2005508d8/c47ad86d67c1466bca256ce0007e8d6b/$FILE/ATTH23CO/Exstatic%202%202005,%20Australia.xls

(corrected URL-from-Hell)


- d.
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In a message dated 9/4/2006 7:49:40 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
dgerard@gmail.com writes:

It'll be amusing when US contributors are a minority on en:, they'll
find out how UK contributors sometimes feel ;-p





The real problem is the possibility of English-as-a-second-language speakers
(or third or fourth language) becoming a majority of users on en.wiki and
the impact that this would have on the basic quality of writing. It has already
becoming an issue in some areas of content related to India, where the prose
requires inordinate cleanup just to make it legible.

To be clear, I am *not* saying that these contributions should be
discouraged--only that they come at some cost.

Danny
(who has already spent some time adding spaces after punctuation)
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On 04/09/06, daniwo59@aol.com <daniwo59@aol.com> wrote:

> The real problem is the possibility of English-as-a-second-language speakers
> (or third or fourth language) becoming a majority of users on en.wiki and
> the impact that this would have on the basic quality of writing. It has already
> becoming an issue in some areas of content related to India, where the prose
> requires inordinate cleanup just to make it legible.
> To be clear, I am *not* saying that these contributions should be
> discouraged--only that they come at some cost.


Sounds like something for a specialised cleanup crew. The thing that
makes cleanup really horrible is when the articles are badly
structured as well - are these at least usable articles with only
grammar cleanup?


- d.
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On 04/09/06, daniwo59@aol.com <daniwo59@aol.com> wrote:

> The real problem is the possibility of English-as-a-second-language speakers
> (or third or fourth language) becoming a majority of users on en.wiki and
> the impact that this would have on the basic quality of writing. It has already
> becoming an issue in some areas of content related to India, where the prose
> requires inordinate cleanup just to make it legible.
> To be clear, I am *not* saying that these contributions should be
> discouraged--only that they come at some cost.


Sounds like something for a specialised cleanup crew. The thing that
makes cleanup really horrible is when the articles are badly
structured as well - are these at least usable articles with only
grammar cleanup?


- d.
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David Gerard wrote:
> On 04/09/06, David Gerard <dgerard@gmail.com> wrote:
>> According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 12.7% of people in
>> the 2001 Census speak a language other than English at home. Full
>> stats:
>
<snip>
> (corrected URL-from-Hell)
>
>

Ever heard of tinyurl? :)

--
Alphax - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Alphax
Contributor to Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
"We make the internet not suck" - Jimbo Wales
Public key: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Alphax/OpenPGP

Here are some of the less egregious examples. In many cases, I can't correct
them because I have no idea what they are talking about.


_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chintada_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chintada)

_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kutiyana_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kutiyana)

_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanaka_Durga_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanaka_Durga)

_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kottapadi_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kottapadi)

_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotkapura_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotkapura)

_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manpur_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manpur)

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David Gerard wrote:

>On 04/09/06, daniwo59@aol.com <daniwo59@aol.com> wrote:
>
>
>>What I find especially interesting is not the native Asutralian languages,
>>which have a handful of speakers only, but the fact that in India, over 99
>>percent of people prefer to edit in English than in their native languages. It
>>would be interesting to see the results once native languages are included in
>>the sample.
>>
>>
>It'll be amusing when US contributors are a minority on en:, they'll
>find out how UK contributors sometimes feel ;-p
>
In case you hadn't noticed there are more than two English speaking
countries in the world. :-(

Ec

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daniwo59@aol.com wrote:

>Here are some of the less egregious examples. In many cases, I can't correct
>them because I have no idea what they are talking about.
>
>_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chintada_
>(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chintada)
>
>_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kutiyana_
>(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kutiyana)
>
>_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanaka_Durga_
>(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanaka_Durga)
>
>_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kottapadi_
>(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kottapadi)
>
>_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotkapura_
>(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotkapura)
>
>_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manpur_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manpur)
>
I remember the debate whe the only thing in the article about Tucson was
"Tucson is a city in Arizona." India is a huge country with many, many
such small town. Attention to details about them is more recent. Give
it time.

Ec

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