fallback
Well, I can make "artifical English fallback": create "fuzzy translations" with the same content as English original
And meanwhile you have not made translations since 9 April, while MediaWiki for Ukrainian has 19 MediaWiki core messages untranslated, 4226 MediaWiki extension messages untranslated and 1295 Wikia MediaWiki extension messages untranslated. Compared to Russian, which has 0 MediaWiki core messages untranslated, 6 MediaWiki extension messages untranslated and 21 Wikia MediaWiki extension messages untranslated. Russian being a language that is widely understood in Ukraine, as well as written in the same script as Ukrainian, unlike English.
I appreciate the political sensitivities that come with the language of the former union, but as a more literate person than the average Ukrainian, which I assume you are, all emotions set aside, Russian is *the* best possible fallback language for Ukranian. I'm quoting the English language Wikipedia here: According to the Constitution, the state language of Ukraine is Ukrainian. While Russian, which was the de facto official language of the Soviet Union, is widely spoken, especially in eastern and southern Ukraine. According to the 2001 census, 67.5 percent of the population declared Ukrainian as their native language and 29.6 percent declared Russian.[124] Most native Ukrainian speakers know Russian as a second language.[1] The English language is not mentioned. Let's be done with this.
How do you think, why I don't made translations since 9 April? I stopped here my activity until this problem is resolved (I began translate this messages locally :/ )
You could try creating a Bugzilla request for an enhancement, that enables each user to choose their fallback language in the preferences, right next to where the preferred language is chosen right now.
But give some thought to the fact that translating the messages here (not locally, because that helps no one) is the best immediate way of ending the issue once and for all. A translated message always prevents the fallback from being presented, and that's the end of that. And it's in your hands, so you have the power to change things this way.
I know, I know... I must find some better way to show my protest ;)
Has anyone created a Bugzilla about this, per Hamilton Abreu's suggestion? If not, I will. This would at least help those readers who have user accounts. A good example of a language where this would be useful is Luo (OK it doesn't have a project here yet, but some day...). This language group lives either side of the border between Kenya and Tanzania. It would be useful to them to be able to choose either English (medium of primary instruction in Kenya) or Swahili (medium of primary instruction in Tanzania) as fallback.
Great. I have added my vote to the bug - my first vote ever on Bugzilla. I would say that this was very exciting, except that might give the impression that I don't get out enough :).
Thanks