[Wikipedia-l] voting on www.wikipedia.org

[Magnus Manske]

The Cunctator wrote:

>>>Unfortunately, voting is not really a good way of running things. See
>>>Meatball:VotingIsEvil.
>>>      
>>>
>>I don't intend to put any more effort in a design when it's dubious that
>>a multilingual international page will ever get realized - and for knowing
>>this it is essentially to find out what a majority of people wants.
>>    
>>
>
>But it's not a way to find out what a majority of people wants. It's a way
>to find out how many people there are who subscribe to the list, agree with
>your way of defining the issues, and like putting X's in boxes.
>
>And what's the point in finding out what a majority of people want? You
>should want to do the right thing.
>
Elian and I both think that the "dynamic" multilingual page is the 
/right thing/. We are pretty sure many other people on this list think 
that as well. Elian is trying to back that up with numbers. Of course, 
that might put an end to vague discussions. No wonder you're so scared 
of votes ;-) 

>In the United States, the majority of people want (according to polls) the
>death penalty, more spent on education and other social services, fewer
>taxes, more surveillance, bigger cars, cleaner air, war in Iraq, etc. So?
>
The alternative is doing what the cabal (R) says. Funny thing you've 
become an elitist advocate.

>That said, multilingualism is certainly  crucial to the central purpose of
>Wikipedia, which is to build a complete encyclopedia.
>
>And that is the perspective from which this issue should be considered. 
>  
>
It seems to boil down to one question: Is wikipedia a project of 
encyclopedias in many languages, or a big English encyclopedia with 
spin-offs in other languages?

Magnus