I totally agree about the flags -- I'm against them. Flags are for countries, not languages.
lcrocker@nupedia.com wrote:
I do, however, like the idea of representing languages with images of famous contributors in that language; this could be used in lots of places writing about Wikipedia. I'd suggest Shakespeare, Hugo, Cervantes as the obvious English/French/Spanish ones. I don't know who would be appropriate for the others.
I don't like even this idea. My reason is that I wouldn't know what Hugo and Cervantes looked like if they were in my bathtub. It's hard to know what image could universally represent various languages, and this is especially true for "smaller" languages.
What one person or image would be universally recognized as German, for example? (Hitler, but he's not a good choice for obvious reasons!)
I like the idea of visual representations, but I think words are best for this. My mind could be changed if someone clever came up with an obvious set of symbols that I felt would be inoffensive in every respect and instantly recognizable. But I think that's unlikely.
--Jimbo