I realize that here are many people in favour of (a) merging wordpress-deutschland.org with de.wordpress.org, (b) dropping the "Sie" version of the language file, or replacing it with the version from WPD. It may be that many people actually think this way, but I think the reason for their vast majority here is that there are calls to vote in favour of this subject on some sites rather affiliated with WPD. So I think that the discussion is a bit biased. I think that everybody's opinion should be heard, I just want to warn readers of evaluating this discussion by quantitative means.

Now for the arguments of this proposition:

- Maintaining multiple files is never good.

Why would that be? As long as there is a maintainer for everything, and there is a reason for differences in the files, I say: Choice is good.

- Maintaining multiple communities cannot be good either.

I agree. It would be great if there was a better and united German WordPress community. Unfortunately, the leaders of the larger part of the community behave in a way which causes a lot of criticism by other members of the community. The issue with the commercial plugin and the behaviour of WPD regarding this problem was just the tip of the iceberg. So it's just fair that other people say they don't want to deal with WPD.

Anyway, I don't even want two communities, and I think I have clearly outlined this in the discussion of november/december 2007. I simply wanted to maintain a WordPress version which was "independent" -- not from Automattic, but from WPD and their interpretation of "community". However, I have also said and repeated that I really respect the work that is done on the WPD forums (I myself have been there quite active for some time), and I never intended to install a new community to replace these forums.

In fact, the "deal" that de.wordpress.org and WPD was that de.wordpress.org would maintain the official WordPress version and the language files, and WPD would have the community (and maintain their own WP version, if they want). Instead now, while de.wordpress.org kept the promise of not interfering with the community, WPD decided to create a "Sie" version (which is ok, but they didn't do this for a long time before), and started acting like de.wordpress.org were just an empty shell that unjustifiably took the position of WPD.

I'm very sorry for those who expected to obtain the WPD language file and got the one from de.wordpress.org instead. However, WPD maintains their own WP version, why aren't they able to fix it in a way that updates are pulled from their own servers? Anyway, if it helps, I would consider to commit the "Du" language file from WPD into the WordPress i18n tree, if it helps users to get their desired language file.

- The Web is "Du" -- Why Should my Blog talk to my like "Sie" (formal)? -- the company who need this, should install it themself but plz dont make every blogger waste his time

You see, many people like it a bit more formal, not only companies. In fact, as you know, it's usual in Germany to address people you don't know in a more formal way, namely with "Sie". I know that the web is not as formal as "real life", but many people prefer good manners on the web, too.

By the way, if somebody "wastes" their time, then it's the people who translate tens of thousands of lines, in order to present you guys with a language file.

- The de.wordpress.org-Translation is not so nice. It tries to translate to many stuff and the other Version finds better words...

Well, I say: The WPD translation is crappy. There are tons of spelling and grammar errors, and -- quite frankly -- to anybody who wasn't dropped from school after the 6th grade, it's an insult. The translations from de.wordpress.org may not be perfect, but they strive to be correct and well translated. There will always be disagreements over particular translations, but everybody is free to use their own -- even to take an existing one and adapt it. Long live Free Software!

By the way, if there are things in the de.wordpress.org translation you dislike, you are welcome to file a bug in the WordPress bug tracker, or send an e-mail to the address you find at the top of the .po file.

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Conclusion:

1. Those who came over from WPD, please consider that WPD is (from a technical viewpoint) a fork of WordPress, and if they don't want the de.wordpress.org language file, they should fix their version.

2. A merge with WPD will most likely not happen.

3. If WPD is not able to fix their version: To give users the choice, I'm willing to find a way to have the "Du" version of WPD in the SVN tree, despite the fact that it's a bad translation in my opinion.

The "Du"-version is much better. I see the need for a "Sie"-version, tho, which should be based on the same translation.

You all should better start a discussion about dropping kubrick as the standard theme... ;)