I have done a write up of the current issues with the naming and invite you to please read and comment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Mdupont#Naming_and_status_of_Kosovo_p...
I suggest some things and would like to find agreement, we need to figure out the right way forward on this issue so we can improve the quality of the articles.
Even if we don't change the names of the articles, we have to make sure that the articles are usable for people if they only know the albanian or serbian name. We need to also clean up the entire Parallel article structure for the Districts of Kosovo, Districts of Kosovo (serbia) and Municipalities of Kosovo. The district scheme is totally outdated and confusing. It reduces the quality of the Wikipedia to have POV Forks. thanks mike
On Fri, Nov 12, 2010 at 9:08 AM, M. Williamson node.ue@gmail.com wrote:
Yes, sure, but a lot of smaller villages and towns in many countries do not have well-established English names. Besides, what constitutes the "English name" is a matter of debate - according to law, the official name of Kolkata in English is "Kolkata"... but then, couldn't Germany pass a law saying that their name in English was "Bundesrepublik Deustchland", and would we have to consider that just as English as "Kolkata" or "Thiruvananthapuram" (formerly Calcutta and Trivandrum)?
Anyhow, referring to things by their conventional English name is the reason we call it Kosovo and not Kosovë or Kosova, the Albanian names; however in cases such as village and town names, names of mountains and bridges, etc. which may have been referred to both ways in English literature or barely mentioned or not mentioned at all in English sources, it's less clear-cut.
2010/11/11 geni geniice@gmail.com:
On 11 November 2010 14:26, Mike  Dupont jamesmikedupont@googlemail.com wrote:
Ideally we would use the albanian names and encourage the locals to edit.
No ideally we would use the English names. As we have established with say "Germany" and "Norway" what the locals happen to call something is of secondary significance.
-- geni
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