User talk:Aphaia/User page draft

I looked briefly at your 1st draft. Thank you for your effort. First thing I'd like to mention is the wikipedia corresponding link, for comparison, here: w:Wikipedia:User page. I don't see any substantive reason why wikiquote and wikipedia (or any other wikimedia project) should have different userpage policies, but still, if we come up with good ideas here as a result of our experience in wikiquote, we can suggest them for wikipedia too. In fact, if the single login proposal would be implemented in an ideal way, then users would have one userpage for all wikimedia projects, and one list with all of their editing contributions on a single page, etc. (this, btw, would destroy my argument that en.wikiquote userpages should be primarily in English). But not sure if that's likely, and it's far off anyway. I also notice that the wikipedia page has discussion, but they don't touch the foreign languages issue specifically anywhere, it seems. Or perhaps they do somewhere else, and I didn't find it. Anyway, with regard to your draft, generally it's good imho, but perhaps a choice of certain words can lead to different emphasis. When you use the word "freespace", perhaps some users would take it to mean something stronger than what you intended. Sams 22:54, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Thank you for your feedback and complement. I forgot to check Wikipedia policy page. I'll give a look. And it is interesting they don't mention to foreign language issue. Perhaps it is written elsewhere or a sort of "unwritten rules".
 * And I appreciate you to remind me your argument. Do you mind if I write "some editors have a strong opinion, as for user page (and perhaps talk page) of English Wikiquote too, not only on articles, every content should be written in English, because English is only the language which all readers can understand"? (too strong perhaps, and your modification will be welcome). Or more briefly, because I think it would be someday helpful our policy reflects past (and well discussed) arguments.
 * As for "Freespace", hmmm do you have any recomendation?
 * And all above, if you prefer, please edit the draft itself too;-) Be bold. --Aphaia 23:59, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Aphaia, I've done some significant copyediting, as you requested. I hope I managed to preserve your intent without introducing my own opinions (yet). I did expand on a couple of points: I hope you find the changes useful. &mdash; Jeff Q (talk) 02:48, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * I explained why the editing-only-user-page pattern is considered suspicious, which a new editor wouldn't necessarily understand.
 * In "User's own quotes", I had a hard time rephrasing the "your own favorite quotes" text. Your intent, I think, is to say that we don't want someone named Joe Nobody to create a "Joe Nobody" page that says "Here are my favorite quotes", but we don't to imply that Joe can't create a page like "William Shakespeare" that starts with only his favorite Shakespeare quotes. (Of course, W.S. already exists, but you get the idea.)
 * I didn't edit your "En-0" comment because it appears to be a personal observation.
 * I appreciate your copyediting. En-0 remark is subjective, and not based on observation of our project itself, though there are actually some editors who concentrate creating interlang links, but it is unknown if they speak English or not, so I think it would be better to point out only potential cases. But logocally we cannot expect every editor has English competence enough communicate sufficiently (and thank you for your patience for my tweaks and bad English, one of my American friend confessed once he couldn't sometimes understand what I wanted to mean.) In another aspect, En-0 comment is a bit unclear for us, because currently we haven't imported Babel template to our project yet.
 * Perhaps "user page utilities" can be much expanded. Self-introduction is one of main function and useful aspect not directly for editing but for building up the community (and finally to constructive editing). This section could be suggestive and informative.
 * Proposal of new sections and contents, or trimming will be appreciated. --Aphaia 05:36, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Language issues
I moved the following here from the page, because it was a bit too "talkative" and less "policish". I rewrote, losing much of the text, so I am keeping it here. ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 18:25, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

We start from two facts:
 * 1) English Wikiquote is a English-language project, and English is therefore its lingua franca. In other words, every editor is expected to be able to communicate in English to some extent.
 * 2) English is however not the mother tongue of all English Wikiquote editors. Some editors communicate more frequently in (and feel more comfortable with) other languages.

Consequently, some editors doubt if every contributor can communicate in English. On our sibling project English Wikipedia we find many En-0 editors who don't speak or very hesitate to speak in English. It is therefore alogical and unfriendly to force every editor to write only in English, specially on their user page which they can use in the way they like basically, and sometimes would like to write down their personal remarks (like "Todo-list"). Some non-native English speakers may prefer to write in other languages on their user pages. This raises the possibility that no one but the users themselves can understand what is written.

So, the suggested attitudes are:
 * Every language is welcome.
 * English is, however, the main language of this project.
 * As a kindness toward other editors, if you write in a language other than English, it is recommended that you add some English notice or title, like "To-do list" (perhaps followed by "To-do list" in another language). Another compromise might be a note "Some parts of this page are written in (your language)".
 * People are expected to communicate here in English, but it isn't mandatory. Embassy and Wikimedia Embassy could help you in some situations. (Someday we can say "you could be help in any language" hopefully, but it'll take time).
 * If you can speak other languages than English, we invite you to list yourself on the Embassy list.