Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals/Cross-Language Editing Exchange


 * The following discussion is an archived proposal of the WikiProject below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the project's talk page (if created) or the WikiProject Council).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The proposed WikiProject was not created

Description
The Wikipedia Cross-language Editing Exchange is based on the idea of language exchanges. In short, it helps you find a partner who speaks the language you are learning, and is learning the language that you speak. The partners will reciprocate editing each other's contributions to Wikipedia written in the languages they are learning. This allows participants to do meaningful work while practicing a language, while making sure that their contributions are well-written enough to be valuable to Wikipedia. This is a popular, well-supported method of language learning, and Wikipedia would be a natural environment for such a process.

I have a mock-up of what the main page would look like here, and a brief description of how it would work here.

Side benefits of the project would include making en.wikipedia a more welcoming place for English language learners, as recently discussed at the Countering Systemic Bias project, and improving coverage of issues outside of the Anglosphere.

Tdslk (talk) 01:25, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

List of important pages and categories for this proposed group
 * articles needing translation from foreign-language wikipedias (108 subcategories with many thousands of articles)
 * articles needing translation from foreign-language wikipedias (108 subcategories with many thousands of articles)


 * List of WikiProjects currently on the talk pages of those articles semi-related WikiProjects


 * Please invite these and any other similar groups to join the discussion about this proposal. See WikiProject_Council/Directory to find similar WikiProjects.


 * (officially "semi-active")
 * (officially "semi-active")
 * (officially "semi-active")

Of the above, "translators available", which lists editors willing to assist with translations into English, is the most similar to this project. This would be different, but complimentary, to that project in that its focus is on editing, not translating, with editors reciprocating assistance. Participants would not need to be fluent in both languages; in fact, this is designed specifically for persons learning a language.
 * Why do you want to start a new group, instead of joining one of these existing groups?

Functionally, the Guild of Copy Editors' request page would somewhat resemble this project, but it is primarily for articles being nominated for GA or FA, and has a long backlog (see this recent discussion).

Intertranswiki is about collaborative translation of articles, but seems pretty dormant. Mechanistically, it is pretty different, with a focus on group writing and on working on predetermined articles. Local Embassy also seems relatively quiet, and like "translators wanted", but without an explicit focus on translating articles.

Support
Also, specify whether or not you would join the project.
 * 1) Support as the creator, and obviously I will join the project. Tdslk (talk) 23:31, 11 November 2014 (UTC)
 * 2) Support This has lots of potential to promote friendships between editors, editing skills development, interwiki collaboration and countering systemic bias. Beyond copyediting drafts, members of this project could help each other understand sources in other languages and answer questions about grammar. --Hildanknight (talk) 06:17, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Discussion

 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the project's talk page (if created) or at the WikiProject Council). No further edits should be made to this page.