Talk:Capacity Exchange

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Hello

I heard about this project from Z Blace. I am interested and excited about what can be accomplished within the project. Can you add a participant/interested people list so that people can put their names in? I want to invite some of my friends too. Egezort (talk) 19:52, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

@Egezort excellent idea! @Andi Inácio can you please see what is best way to do this within your plans? -- Zblace (talk) 09:02, 21 September 2023 (UTC)

Thank you @Egezort and also @Zblace! That's an exciting idea.

As soon as I have this section for interested parties, I will tag you, so you can sign.
AInacio (WMB) (talk) 22:17, 21 September 2023 (UTC)

Hello @Egezort! I'm happy to inform you we have our interested people list up and running. Please check our home page! a/c @Zblace
Best,
AInacio (WMB) (talk) 02:17, 11 October 2023 (UTC)

@AInacio (WMB) thank you for notification!

@Irdiism maybe you are also interested in signing up? Zblace (talk) 05:55, 14 October 2023 (UTC)

would like to participate

this effort sounds very worthwhile. i would like to help out. could you please let me know how i might do so? thanks. Sm8900 (talk) 15:10, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

Hey, @Sm8900. Please email us at capx{@}wmnobrasil.org so we can talk. AJurno (WMB) (talk) 16:36, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

Great idea, weak title

In my opinion, the title of this project in English should be "Skills Exchange". The current title is very weak, and in my opinion represents a false friend^{[heterossemântico]} back-translation by a non-native speaker of English from a literal equivalent in a Romance language (likely Intercâmbio de capacidades; same as Échange de capacités, etc.) into the confusing English term *'Capacity Exchange' which does not mean the same thing. The word exchange is fine; the following two-word expressions are clear in English and mean just what you expect: "currency exchange", "information exchange", "stock exchange", "commodity exchange" and so on. You could, theoretically, have the expression "capacity exchange" in English, but it is rare and the primary meaning in English is different than the false friend examples.

Given the apparent origin of this project, I am going to assume that the English title comes from a back-translation from Brazilian Portuguese. Both the Portuguese word capacidade and the English capacity have multiple meanings, and a few of these meanings overlap and are the same in Portuguese and English but most are not. Of the eight definitions of capacidade at Houaiss,^{[free registration required]} you could use the English word capacity for 1, 2, and 5 but not for the others (4=talent, master, role model; 6=capacitance; 7=competence; 8=jurisdiction) and, crucially: 3.1=skill, ability, talent, aptitude (depends on context) and 3.2 ability (my translations). In the context of running text, you could say, "He is a true jack-of-all-trades—he has many ______" where the blank could be filled by any of skills, abilities, or talents, but not capacities. (In a different context, you could say "He has a capacity for mathematics", but that means something like a future potential: maybe he is a child who has shown some initial ability above the level of his peers; the word aptitude also works there.) As far as the two-word title, Skills Exchange sounds very much the best in English; Abilities Exchange is understandable but sounds awkward; Talent Exchange is mysterious, and calls to mind film companies or modeling agencies lending out their actors or models to each other or something. Capacity Exchange is also mysterious; what came to mind for me was interlinked server farms or electrical grids where servers or generators in one system would share resources with another system that was about to reach capacity (peak load) in order to prevent a crash or system failure.

I think the current English title will be clear to all speakers of Romance languages (even if they speak very rudimentary English, or no English) due to the false friend association to the similar term in their native language with the correct meaning, but will remain mysterious to native speakers of English. (Bilingual English-Romance speakers will probably get it, after some initial confusion.)

There are other errors of pt ⟶ en translation on the project page, such as the use of the word "predefinition"—which will be mysterious to most native English speakers—and which is another case of false friend translation of prédefinição. (The English word predefinition is rare, and means something different. See for example: pt:Wikipédia:Predefinições ⟶ en:WP:Templates.) I have changed this word to 'template'.

In my opinion, calling this project the 'Capacity Exchange' was a mistake at the outset, but you have probably been using it too long now to change it; you have an abbreviation, a logo, and everything. What I would do now, if I were you, is to replace all occurrences of the word capacity in running text in the English version to skills (depending on context, you can sometimes alter that to skills and abilities) *except* where you are referring to the project title; there I would use the abbreviation 'CapX' instead of the current title wherever possible as it is a meaningless gloss in English that if used enough, will take on the meaning of "Skills Exchange" as viewers become familiar with it through repetition.

Good luck with the project, it sounds interesting! Mathglot (talk) 21:12, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Examples from the video:

• In just a few clicks, you will be able to select the skills you want to share and learn. (@ 0:36)

  This is perfect! Completely understandable, sounds like native English. Don't change a word.

• Imagine a world in which every single Wikimedian can freely share in the sum of all capacities. (@ 0:01)

  The last four words are almost meaningless to me. Share all knowledge, like build an online encyclopedia? Completely mysterious.

One possible improvement, emphasizing the sharing:

• Imagine a world in which every single Wikimedian can freely share their skills and abilities with every other.

There are many ways to express this; if the goal is more the idea of a universal repository accessible to all, one might say:

• Imagine a world in which every Wikimedian can freely share in the sum total of all our skills and knowledge.

or, emphasizing the universality more:

• Imagine a world in which every Wikimedian can freely share in the combined knowledge and skills of the entire movement.

There are many more ways to express it, but I hope this helps illustrates the issue. Mathglot (talk) 22:26, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

MassMessage

Hi. Could you stop posting messages to people that have reverted your mass messages? This is considered inappropriate in several European countries, including mine. If you want to post to several users, then make a page with a list of recipients that people can remove themselves from. Snævar (talk) 14:04, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

It's being addressed at Meta:Requests_for_help_from_a_sysop_or_bureaucrat#Report concerning User:Joris Darlington Quarshie --Min☠︎rax^«¦talk¦» 14:10, 14 November 2025 (UTC)