I must agree with Craig here: that the chapters conference served only vegan food this year wasn't a popular decision among southeast Asian delegates either. You can't please everyone, and it is important to know whom to please. Avoiding Sabbath and Ramadan is probably a good culturally aware idea for a Wikimania in Israel; abstinence from pork for a Wikimania in Poland (there were vegetarian options) probably not. On Jul 21, 2011 8:27 PM, "Craig Franklin" craig@halo-17.net wrote:
The problem with what you're proposing is that everyone has something they don't want to see, and sooner or later you'll annoy someone by omitting something they need. Case in point: the recent Chapters conference in Berlin was vegan food only, which clashed with my cultural requirement to have fish on a Friday.
You simply can't make everyone happy.
On 21 July 2011 22:22, WereSpielChequers <werespielchequers@gmail.com wrote:
The reason why I suggested that we make a commitment that "future Wikimanias won't clash with Ramadan or certain other "culturally sensitive" dates", Is that as Harel pointed out it isn't just Islam that has dates we should avoid (and I appreciate that Muslims are exempt from their fast on their way to and from Wikimania). I accept that it won't be easy to come up with dates that work for a culturally sensitive global organisation, and I'm aware that this isn't the first time we've clashed with Ramadan. Globalisation is hard, coming up with a midyear date that doesn't clash with anything we don't want to clash with will not be easy, but if we truly want to Globalise the pedia we should at least try to do this.
I don't observe Ramadan, or watch sport, and I'm happy to eat pork. But if we want future Wikimanias to be open to a truly global community then I believe that we should aim for Gdansk to be the last Wikimania with Pork on the menu and Haifa the last that clashes with any major religious event (I have no objection to a two hour break for sports fans provided there is, as at Gdansk, an alternative for the sportsphobic amongst us).
WereSpielChequers
On 20 July 2011 22:41, Casey Brown lists@caseybrown.org wrote:
On Wed, Jul 20, 2011 at 4:11 PM, Manuel Schneider manuel.schneider@wikimedia.ch wrote:
We discussed that last year and someone came up with a sensible
remark:
If you are travelling during Ramadan, you are excempted from the fast.
It should also be noted that Wikimania 2009 also took place during Ramadan, and Wikimania 2012 will miss it by only a few days.
There's also already a page on wikimania2011wiki directed at the Muslim Ramadan-observing Wikimaniacs that has been up for almost an entire year (August 2010!). http://wikimania2011.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ramadan
Having Wikimania during Ramadan isn't a showstopper... they can still partake in all of the normal Wikimania activities, and this year's Wikimania has already made plans to support them.
-- Casey Brown Cbrown1023
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