For whatever it's worth, Wikipedia has become a complex and byzantine bureaucracy...it's a maze of process and rules and editors that never get tired of enforcing either. It'll never happen but we should start kicking people out of project space.
-----Original Message----- From: wikien-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikien-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of White Cat Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2009 11:16 PM To: English Wikipedia Subject: [WikiEN-l] Wikipedia, the overly standarised Encyclopedia you wouldn't dare edit
I am a bit weary about the over standardization of the site. There seems to be a "one correct version" philosophy. I was hoping it to self-destruct but it seems like that aint gonna happen.
We are now forced to use US style dates... Thus it is the American Encyclopedia internationals (non USians) should feel uncomfortable in visiting let alone editing. We are now forced to use a certain specific template when an alternate is available... Self righteous people will deprecate the other one without even bothering to discuss... We are now forced to not link to dates on list articles... There are tens of other similar changes.
Even more trivial issues are dictated by either a guideline or a wikiproject. Are we a bureaucracy now?
In the past we had multiple correct ways. For example the use of ISO dates (aka [[yyyy-mm-dd]] dates) were encouraged. Users could alter their settings to display the dates in any way they please. The ISO dates were drafted as a compromise to the international versus US date war. Now US dates are hard coded. You do not get to alter it.
The site is becoming increasingly hostile.
Oh and yes I know this mailinglist post will most certainly not fix anything. There isn't a better median though. _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l