Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 16:35:07 -0300 From: Dexter J <lamealameadingdongnopsamlamelame.org> Subject: Re: winter tyres with rims
Salutations: Xenna wrote: > > Xenna wrote: > > > r. van westerhoven wrote: > > > >> Ik heb nog vier winterbanden met velg liggen van mijn Saab 9000 > >> maat 195/65 R 15 > >> 4 gaten > >> > >> Wil iemand hier een bod op doen? > >> Ik woon in de buurt van Amsterdam > > > > Don't post in Dutch in international newsgroups please. > > I'll reply to myself with my motivation instead of replying to each of > you personally. > > English is actually a minority language in the world. It is, however, > the lingua franca of the Internet. There are thousands and probably more > languages in the world. Dutch is spoken by a mere 20 million or so. I am > one of them in case you thought I was an English bigot. > > Imagine this group and others that have no charter that forbids use of > mini-languages. Suppose multi language posting really picks up. In a few > years there could be hundreds of Saab related messages posted in this > groups in hundreds of different languages. I'm not religious, but I know > the story of Babylon, and the Babelfish doesn't seem to work very well > does it? > > It doesn't require a lot of imagination to see that such a group would > be rather useless. Suppose 10% of the postings were in English. Would > you ever bother to seek them out? I wouldn't, even if I speak 4 > languages (like most educated Dutch people). > > The nice thing about international newsgroups is that you can read about > other countries. Even something as simple as 'winter tyres for sale' can > contain interesting info, if you live half way around the world > yourself. Nice, but only if people take the trouble of writing in a > commonly understood language. I'm sure Robert could do that if he wanted. > > To keep the international groups useful something must be done before > the 10% English posts number is reached, I hope everyone agrees. Why not > start while there's still a useful and understandable group? There's a > perfectly good nl.* hierarchy where Dutch postings are welcome (and > English postings are not). Start a nl.auto.saab group there, but don't > destroy usenet by turning it into Babylon. > > I remember when I received my first spam message, it looked innocent > enough on it's own, but then it started multiplying. > > Amen. > > X. > > BTW: Robert, why limit yourself by posting your ads in Dutch when > there's 50 million Germans accross the border that could be craving for > winter tyres... You point is well taken. However - if you look at it another way, the only folks that could read the post would in fact be within shipping distance of the tires in question. I disagree that English is or should be the 'lingua franca' on the internet - on the other hand - I'm pretty much limited to it if I want to understand or be able to respond to something. I view it as my ignorance - not ignorance on the part of folks who choose to post in their native language.. So I guess you and I will have to agree to disagree - which is OK - that's one of the things that makes AAS a great NG in any language and that -is- my last / %77%6F%72%64 / on it.. :) .. -- J Dexter - webmaster - http://www.dexterdyne.org/ all tunes - no cookies no subscription no weather no ads no news no phone in - RealAudio 8+ Required - all the Time Radio Free Dexterdyne Top Tune o'be-do-da-day Glen Frey - Smugglers Blues http://www.dexterdyne.org/888/046.RAM
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
