Ok, so it finally came down to this: a few people say that some thing
has to be done one way, while many other people say it has to be done in
another way. Whatever the discussion, whatever the results of a poll,
whatever the arguments, the minority can always say that they are being
trampled upon if things are done the way the majority prefers. The net
result is that no amount of effort can result in breaking this deadlock
in any civilised way, because the very fact that a majority thinks
differently than the minority is being challenged.
Imposing the majority's view over the minority will no doubt result in
some negative emotional responses from the minority, but isn't this
preferable to having negative emotional responses from the majority? If
I rename that article I will be both bashed about for "making unilateral
decisions" (they are not unilateral, the majority supports this
decision, but the minority will scream that they are being treated
unfair, as explained above). Also, this would most certainly result in a
bloody edit war (well, "renaming war" would be the proper term in this
case, but I'll use "edit war" for consistency).
So, what are the Wikipedia recommendations in this case? Danutz,
practically the sole proponent of the minority view on the Romanian
Wikipedia, explicitly refuses to acknowledge any support /at all/ for
the majority (BOR spelling) on this mailing list, in the
"Minority/majority question" thread. The trick is that the Romanians'
views are by default tainted with POV in his opinion, therefore he will
not accept any decision made by the majority on the Romanian Wikipedia.
He seems however somewhat willing to accept as NPOV the decision of
other Wikipedians.
Is there any reasonable way to settle this in an objective, quantizable
way (for instance with a poll) on other Wikipedias? Here is what Danutz
is calling for (translated from
http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discu%C5%A3ie:Isus_Cristos which is in
Romanian): "I propose [to decide on the main spelling by] asking someone
who can preserve NPOV, from several international Wikipedias, with
experience in such problems, not only the English one (I propose the
Portuguese, Spanish, French and German), but not to the Arbitration
Committee which you [, Gutza] are a member of."
Personally I find these requests unreasonable, but at the end of the day
there are three possible solutions to this problem:
1) Status quo, the minoritarian version is preserved with the current
spelling both for the naming and in the article, probably with a note
acknowledging the majority spelling;
2) I or anyone else renames and changes the spelling in the article,
inserting a note acknowledging the minority spelling;
3) All of Danutz's requests are granted and we act based on the outcome
of that vote.
Both 1) and 2) will result in flames, edit wars, protection wars (both
Danutz and I are administrators), and probably banning users. I don't
find this reasonable either. So, what do we do? You people are the only
hope for a peaceful solution, whichever it may be. So please answer and
make suggestions, we would both appreciate that! Thank you for your
patience and interest.
Have a nice Sunday!
Gutza