Contributions in languages other than English

[Marielle Lange]

Hi Ro,

I am not sure the issue there is politeness. The translation of your post to
French and back from French to English is the following (and, believe me, it is
worse in French than the translation back to English):

>Frankly, I do not have any problem with a (road) post in an alternative
>language. Obviously, English is here the prevalence one. However, a
>(road) post in for example the French will attract certainly all
>the French-speaking people together! :) However, it is only polished
>[ and me think ListMom made to him a rule ] to also announce a
> translation of babelfish of your post or your best effort to
>the translation.

Imagine you are a non-native. How would you feel about publishing this on the
revolution list? Would you dare put a post that consists in a babelfish
translation on a Russian list (assuming you do not know a word of Russian)? As
a native, what is your first impression (you know, the one that counts so much)
of the writer of the babelfish post above?

It is not a question of politeness, but of self-restraint. Foreign speakers will
usually refrain from contributing until they are confident enough about writing
in English.

Politeness possibly rather recommends a babelfish link to be automatically added
at the bottom of all posts, including the ones in English. ;-)... The wiki I use
(http://revolution.lexicall.org/wiki/) does that, why not copy their script? Why
not also use it on the revolution website?

Marielle