This has nothing to do with ethnocentric-ness it's language-centric-ness.
The English Wikipedia is written in English so usernames should be in a
Latin font so English administrators know who a user is and don't have to
wriggle in all sorts of odd angles to refer to such a user or to block them
for example. Also, Japanese characters are sufficiently confusing for
Westerners to fall under the "Don't make a username that's too similar to
another user's" rule.
And then there's people whose system doesn't support
Japanese/Chinese/Korean font.
It's simply impossible for the English Wikipedia to handle this from a
practical standpoint.
Mgm
On 12/20/06, Luna <lunasantin(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Forwarding from foundation-l, after a brief discussion between myself
and
the original poster. See more at:
http://mail.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-December/thread.html
"English Wikipedia ethnocentric policy affects other communities" --
specifically, our username policy, and the practice of blocking
non-Latin
usernames on sight.
Seems a number of multi-wiki users have felt pushed away or chagrined by
this policy. Single-login seems like it might render the whole thing a
moot
point -- are we ready for the implications of that? Or does anything
need to
be done? Do we know how single-login will affect each wiki's ability to
set
and enforce a username policy, and if so, should changes to the policy
result?
Myself, I'm not sure of the answers to any of these questions, just yet.
But
it seems like we may as well discuss it.
Apologies if I just happened to miss a prior thread -- if it's already
happened, I don't remember seeing it.
-Luna
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Aphaia <aphaia(a)gmail.com>
Date: Dec 20, 2006 12:07 AM
Subject: [Foundation-l] English Wikipedia ethnocentric policy affects
other
communities
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List <foundation-l(a)wikimedia.org>
Hello,
today a user on Japanese Wikipedia whose account is in Kana (a
Japanese script) came to our Admins' noticeboard to request for
chaning his username. He said he would have liked to do so because he
had changed his username on English Wikipedia.
I repeat again the English Wikipedia community should reconsider how
shameful and discriptive policy they has about users' identity and
respect of cultural diversity, and how badly it affects other
communities. I am very sorry to see such a request fullfiled to our
request page.
Cheers,
--
KIZU Naoko
Wikiquote:
http://wikiquote.org
* Nessuna poesia prima di noi *
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