L.S. I am a newly registered user, but not new to wikipedia, i registered to contribute. But i have noticed something that strikes me as quite odd. Being fluent in both my mothertongue, Dutch, and English, i traverse from one wikilanguage to another. While doing so i noticed some things. When i registered in order to be able to edit pages, i read an email by Jimbo Wales in which he notified everyone that citing references was very important, and another in which he stated that (negatively) biased writing is to be dealt with harshly. With this in mind (and seeing that it works well on the English wikipedia) i went back to Hollandipedia, where i saw a different picture. For example, search for Einstein on the English wikipedia, and you'll find a nice long article with (as of now) 55 notes and a long list of references. Now, for the sake of argument, click on "Nederlands" in the other language list. It doesn't matter whether you can read it or not, just scroll down (it's also a long article, right?) to where the references and notes ought to be. You'll find none. Not one reference or note on an article about Einstein. How is that possible when keeping in mind what Jimbo has said? It is possible because wikipedia has (for lack of a better word) cultural borders. On the Dutch wikipedia it's more about quantity than about quality. For such a small language it has a huge amount of articles. The downside is that i can find a factual error of spelling/grammar mistake in just about every article. They are hastily compiled and left that way. (however, there are of course plenty of well written articles by dedicated people who try to maintain a standard, but they are not the rule in my opinion) So there's a "quantity over quality" way of doing things on the dutch wikipedia...i was sure it was unintentional. It appears though, that the gap between the Dutch and English wikipedia is a bit wider than that. The Dutch don't have a "citation needed" template, it was voted off or carried off by the admins, i haven't studied that topic too intensely. Either way, it was proposed, and it's not here now. So, instead of being able to flag unreferenced articles with "citation needed" or something similar, we are supposed to discuss it on the discussion page. Which is a pain, of course. My question is, how independent are wikicountries? If Jimbo says something, and the English wikipedia has a system for something, isn't it odd that the Dutch (or any other language) doesn't? One can see the result in the Einstein article. Overdoing it is one thing, but not one single reference? And on the discussion page they talk about a lot, but not about that. Is it desirable that a connected system like wikipedia has "autonomous zones" that make their own rules? Or is that freedom? But what about the basic rules the founder holds so dear? They don't apply to people who come from somewhere else? I would really like those questions answered by someone! There are more examples of things not overlapping when crossing a language barrier, but this struck me most. Also, as i understood, anyone can be elected to the wiki Board (if they qualify). So the country does not matter, but still the countries don't all play by the same rules? Another strange thing, which has less to do with wikiborders, and more with real ones, according to Dutch copyright law it is apparently forbidden to display album covers on the Dutch wikipedia (as stated int he Dutch image use policy). But the English one shows them just fine. My question is, since wikipedia is hosted and founded in the US, what does it matter that a Dutch-language article wants to have an album cover. Is it forbidden just because the language is different? One click away resides a nice hi-res album cover on the English wikipedia. I'm confused about the legal framework on this one. One last thing! On the topic of keeping a neutral perspective in any article: If a muslem writes an article about Muhammad, and he adds "Peace be upon him", which he is required to do according to his beliefs, can that article still be (perceived as) neutral? Someone reading it might wonder. Same goes for other religions and their ritual ways of writing things ("the Messiah", not naming God by his name, etc), this example is one I actually saw recently. (google search domain wikipedia.org for "peace be upon him"). If this is not a neutral view however, could someone required by faith to write that way still write about those topics that require mentioning the prophet? Especially since a muslem probably has more knowledge about these things, that would be odd. I'm sorry if this is too lengthy or not posted to the right forum (forgive my youthful ignorance), i really do wonder about these things.