Proposal: Stack Overflow (in Portuguese)
Hi,
I don't think that "53/100 committers with 200+ rep on any other site" is fair, we have many people who would like to use any stack Q&A site but doesn't use becase can't speak english. Even nowdays we have google translate, It is really bad to translate anything. In my opinion, this commitment score should be removed and then we can give a chance for all people who would like to participate.
The requirement of 100 committers with 200+ rep isn't about being fair... it's about making a site that will succeed.
It is true that many foreign language sites will suffer for this, but removing this requirement would not help the situation at all. It would make it far worse.
If we were to launch Stack Overflow (in Portuguese) right now, with only 53 experienced committers, it would suffer horribly.
Every beta already has an onslaught of brand new users who don't know how SE works, and ask very low-quality questions for the first few weeks or months. Diluting your user base even further with more people who don't know how SE works will drastically hurt the quality of questions on your site, which in turn will lead to experts being driven away, rather than attracted, which will in turn lead to the site being closed for not having enough traffic.
The best thing you can do is recruit Portuguese programmers who also speak at least enough English to earn 200 rep on other sites.
If users are really interested in participating, they will find a way to do so.
After all, isn't that hard to collect a 200+ rep on any given SE site. Every person relates to more than one subject and can easily answer or place a couple of questions, thus achieving the required reputation to help with the commitment cap.
On the other hand I've recently started visiting Area 51 and found the Stackoverflow in Portuguese. As a Portuguese citizen and a programmer, I've committed to this proposal and really hope it gets to see the light of day.
For that end, I've started to spread this proposal, either publicizing it on my social pages, talking about it with friends and coworkers, etc. Soon enough some one that heard about this from me will actively work to help this proposal.
My recommendation: spread the word by all means at your disposal. Don't blame the system that has been around for years.
Everybody got questions, so, place it on a SE site. A question receives upvotes that translates into reputation. Accepting the correct answer also gives reputation.
Placing answers on questions which a person can relate to, is also a great way of receive upvotes, that in turn, translate into reputation.
Motivate friends, coworkers, any given Portuguese programmer to bring their daily questions to SE sites, in a couple of weeks some will already have overcome the 200 rep :)
Maybe many fellow portuguese speaking people share my opinion: most of the quality content in computing is already in english, it's better to advise computing initiates/students who don't speak english to learn english.
I don't think stackoverflow.com fragmentation over language is a good thing, think of how many people will not be able to help a portuguese stackoverflow.com because they don't speak portuguese.
