On 14 September 2011 22:50, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
x.wikimedia.org subdomains use country codes (ISO 3166). x.wikipedia.org subdomains use language codes (ISO 639). "uk" is the language code for Ukrainian. In country codes, it is a recognised alternative code for the UK [1].
That's not quite true. "uk" has been "exceptionally reserved" at the request of the United Kingdom, as it is "required in order to support a particular application, as specified by the requesting body and limited to such use; any further use of such code elements is subject to approval by the ISO 3166/MA". Therefore it should not be used in applications of ISO 3166, and is not a recognised alternative code -- "gb" is the only official country code for the "United Kingdom". Nevertheless, the use of ISO 3166 country codes for wikimedia subdomains is just a wikimedia convention, and there is no law against us squatting on Ukraine's country code.
Andrew BabelStone