[Wikipedia-l] Re: [Intlwiki-l] Spanish reunification effort

[Brion VIBBER]

Anthere wrote:
>>the>american flag be removed from that page
> http://meta.wikipedia.com/wiki.phtml?title=What_to_do_with_www.wikipedia.org
>>>But I didnot remove it myself...
>>
>>Dude, it's a wiki! :)
> 
> you didnot get my point maybe ?
> anyway, it's ok for it maybe to be on the meta (so I
> didnot remove it). It is not ok for it to be that way
> on wikipedia.org (here, I would have removed it)

Well, _my_ point was that the thing you were objecting to was a 
proposition, part of a wiki conversation with an example illustration. 
It being a wiki, you were free to mention your objection right there on 
the page with it, or in the talk page, and/or directly manipulate the 
proposal to improve it -- that's how a wiki conversation works!

Your point, as I saw it, was that this is a Big Deal that we should 
remember to avoid such seeming Yankee jingoism, so you wanted to make 
sure everyone was aware of the issue by posting about it to the mailing 
lists.

>>I have no problem with it being there -- small and
>>tasteful alongside the UK, Irish, Canadian, Australian, New Zealandese,
>>Belizean, etc flags, just as similar paragraphs for the other
>>languages could have flags representing the countries where those
>>languages are spoken.
> 
> Would you propose to put the flags of participants
> countries of origin, or flags of countries where the
> langage is spoken ?
> that's quite different
> 
> How many countries are there where spanish is spoken ?
> quite a lot I think. For we should not forget any
> country no ?
> 
> What about countries where several langage are spoken,
> would it be a good idea that they have 5 times their
> flag on this page ?
> 
> Would not be too many flags quite heavy in terms of
> loading time, and using too much screen space ?

Could be. Got a better idea?

> Why putting in the front countries ??? langages are
> important, not countries. 

Languages, unfortunately, usually don't have conveniently identifiable 
colorful eye-catching symbols. (The Esperanto flag is an exception. ;)

> Now, I have been wondering for many years, and this IS
> NOT in my dictionary. 
> 
> What is a dude ??? And what does that mean when you
> write dude ???

Pardon my language, I'm from California after all. ;)  "Dude" in this 
usage is simply a vocative/exclamation. It has no real meaning, per se, 
but indicates emphasis.

-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)