fallback

Complete balderdash, really? Gerard, how would you feel if the default fallback language for Dutch were German, and German would pop up randomly if the Dutch translators weren't keeping up? How do you think most Dutch users would feel?

Because language and identity are closely interrelated, the fallback language question is politically sensitive. I would think this is obvious. The solution is equally obvious: let wikis and their users choose their own fallback languages.

Can we check that it is technically possible to change the fallback language? Assuming that this is possible, I would like to add my support to that of Hamilton Abreu and McDutchie. It is all very well to say that the problem disappears once the translations are done, but even if a new message appears for just a few days before it is translated, that is still too long if it is a prominent message appearing in a politically sensitive language. Encouraging more translators to translate the messages is one thing, stressing the translators by needling them with an unpopular fallback language is another matter. (By the way, from experience, it is the MediaWiki site notices which give an even bigger problem than the interface messages, because they are glaringly, insultingly obvious. There is just too much work to keep on top of it all. When I started here there were about 1700 core messages, now there are 2400! What a mountain to climb for new language projects.)

Even though we are opening a political can of worms here, I think that in a way, this can of worms was already with us in the original decision to go with Russian fallback for Ukranian. I assume that that original choice was suggested by an Ukranian translator and that it was a practical choice, given that learning Russian is, or was, compulsory in the Ukraine. So is it possible to conduct a consultation with all the Ukranian projects as to which fallback language they would prefer?

By the way, am I right in thinking that the question of a fallback language affects the Mediawiki software only, and not the other projects?