Wikipedia talk:Simple English Wikipedia

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I've moved this out of the main namespace as I don't think it is worthy of an encyclopedia article. I'm not sure there's a lot of point having an article on one version of Wikipedia anyway. Could the information not be consolidated with information on other languages, or in the Wikipedia article itself? Angela. 10:11, 19 Dec 2003 (UTC)

[edit] I tried to fix link named Main Page

I had to make it external to get it to work - I tried to emulate the link type used in the other similar link, with no luck. Spalding 16:50, Oct 19, 2004 (UTC)

"For children, students and translators". Why do the latter need wiki pages in Simple English? A capable translator from English into any other language should always be capable of understanding English in normal formulations at least passively. (Being able to write complicated phrases is quite a different thing: I, for instance, am Dutch, and as you can see, making natural sentences in a more advanced idiom really is a kind of a problem - I understand virtually anything the normal English Wikipedia features, however). Simple English articles will, as a matter of facts, lead to simple Estonian, Cherokee, Swahili, Ukrainian etc. etc. articles when they are translated, and it is likely that this can irritate those who read the translated articles in their native tongues - they aren't children, after all. Let the translator use a dictionary, and everything will be alright, if only he speaks the language into which he translates fluently! (anon)

Yes, if translators need Simple English, they don't deserve to be employed as translators. On the other hand, I'm not even very convinced of its usefulness to children or students. OK, beginners and elementary learners can't be expected to deal with fully normal English, but they still need material that's both authentic and natural, and very little of the stuff I've seen here is that. I see no point in a Simple English Wikipedia except as an aid to beginning or elementary students of English, and what's been made so far is of very limited use in that regard. garik 11:36, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

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I'm puzzled by this sentence. "Most articles will require about 2000 words, a full defining vocabulary that is useful to explain English idiom." In an article about simple English, perhaps its meaning could be made clearer, as I really don't understand what's intended. Adrian Robson 16:49, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Is the Simple English Wikipedia biased?

I look at articles on it, such as the one about Socrates, and see that it gives a very oversimplified and inaccurate portrayal. I don't see how simple language should mean inaccurate/slanted(biased) information, but it seems to be that way on a number of articles. Smeggysmeg 22:33, 26 July 2006 (UTC)