Message: 16 Date: Tue, 09 Apr 2002 09:56:32 +1000 From: Karen AKA Kajikit kaji@labyrinth.net.au Organization: What? Me Organised... To: wikipedia mailing list wikipedia-l@nupedia.com Subject: [Wikipedia-l] A language question Reply-To: wikipedia-l@nupedia.com

I am Australian, and so I write my articles using Australian English, which is pretty much the same as British English... somebody just came along and re-edited one of my articles, changing most of the terms over to US English and removing the Australianisms. I know that most Americans wouldn't have a clue what a 'milk bar' was, but does that mean that I should NOT use the term in any of my writing? Australians use the internet too!

What is the policy on language?

IIRC, the policy on language is that anything's correct as long as it's consistent usage -- it's the English-language wikipedia, not the American one. I'm appalled, frankly. My personal opinion (as an American) is that, (since we can't reach out and slap someone), a comment should be put on the "corrector's" page and also on the relevant talk page, gently pointing out that this is a breach of good manners and that the spellings are perfectly correct. *I* would also go back and revert it to the original spelling, just because. But then I'm a bit sensitive to Amero-centrism , since I have to spend so much time in class explaining that there's a whole world outside the US ;-)

Cheers! JHK