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Topic on Talk:Talk pages consultation 2019/Communication/Announce

Sentence that doesn't read well

4
Kaartic (talkcontribs)

There seems to be a sentence in the page which doesn't seem to read well.

> What about talk pages works for newcomers, and what blocks them?

As a consequence it's not clear what the sentence was intended to mean. So, it's not possible to translate it. It would be nice if it could be clarified.

Trizek (WMF) (talkcontribs)

Ha, sorry. I crash test sentences in languages I speak, but they may be too similar to me to find a blocker.

It could be phrased as "how newcomers use talk pages and what blocks them".

Kaartic (talkcontribs)

Thanks! I've updated the page to use the statement you suggested.

Tuvalkin (talkcontribs)

Who is "them"? The newcomers or the talk pages? The sentence is unclear, and even if it’s obvious you mean the former, not the latter, it might be especially confusing, ironically, to newcomers.

On the other hand, the sheer statement that talk pages block newcomers is assumed, which is yet another data point showcasing the insidious gaslighting this whole matter is being pushed to the public with. (Cp. wikt:wife-beating question.)

One of the basic assumptions of this project, that changing nothing is not an option, shows its true nature (makework for WMF code darlings) and the paradoxical inability/unwillingness of the the powers in charge to embrace the fundamentally novel nature of wiki work wanting to force us to a webforum / comments section ethos, disguised in snazzy, flashy bells and whistles to hide what is nothing more than a unsuitable 1990s concept.

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