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?
Karen AKA Kajikit wrote:
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?
These are my thoughts, but don't take this as policy, of course.
There are minor issues of spelling: colour versus color, for example. These I recommend we ignore, since either is readable enough. If you feel like changing them one way or the other, you probably need to relax a little bit. :-)
If a term is not easy for any large population (British, Australian, American, Canadian, etc.) to understand, then it should either be avoided or explained. It will often be the case that non-Americans will not know whether their local slang is known to Americans. And vice-versa, except that American slang is in American movies, which are popular in non-American countries.
--Jimbo
On lun, 2002-04-08 at 16:56, Karen AKA Kajikit wrote:
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?
Well, unless it was in [[Clockwork Orange]], *I* certainly wouldn't have the slightest idea what you're talking about.
IMHO, if a term's not generally understood internationally, either it should be explained, or (if the choice of term itself isn't relevant) more widely known terms should be used in its place. (That goes for Americanisms that are unclear or ambiguous as well; for instance the "billion" problem. I'd prefer to simply use "thousand million" or "million million" and remove all doubt.)
Australians use the internet too!
What is the policy on language?
I'm quite sure there's a discussion on use of US vs British English buried in an article that's either been moved or is about to be moved into the Wikipedia: space. Or on meta. Either way, I can't find it just now... The gist of what I recall finding once is that all grammatical English is acceptable, but it seems to be a good idea to keep usage consistent in each individual article.
-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)
Brion L. VIBBER wrote:
I'm quite sure there's a discussion on use of US vs British English buried in an article that's either been moved or is about to be moved into the Wikipedia: space. Or on meta. Either way, I can't find it just now... The gist of what I recall finding once is that all grammatical English is acceptable, but it seems to be a good idea to keep usage consistent in each individual article.
I think that's right.
The Nupedia people had a long boring and pedantic debate about this, and settled on accepting either, and flagging the articles, with eventual plans for "translating". At wikipedia, we aren't so pedantic. If it's good information, and people can comprehend it, that's fine.
Someday, when we get to a situation where we want to edit the wikipedia into a big ole paper book, with "approved" articles, we'll probably wish all the articles were in one form or the other, or else someone is going to have to translate.
--Jimbo
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?
It's best to deal with things on a case-by-case basis instead of dealing in generalities where possible. What article was it?
To speak in generalities, the policy on language is pretty much the policy on everything, which is: as long as what you do a) stays within the mission of Wikipedia and b) doesn't upset other Wikipedians, it's totally fine.
So the #1 policy is to not upset other Wikipedians unnecessarily (and to try not to get upset over minutiae). If someone edited your article so that it's understandable to a wider audience without eliminating information, then that was a good thing. If they removed information, that's not so good.
If as an editor there's something which confuses you, you should use the "Talk" to ask what's going on before editing.
Re: variants of English--feel free to write with whatever spelling you prefer. We don't have any policy as to preferred spelling. See http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/wikipedia%3AOther+Frequent+Questions
Q. American English though, I presume, not British English?
A. Why presume that? People are writing in all sorts of English. This isn't necessarily a bad situation, either. Anyway, of course, the Americans aren't going to adjust their usage for the Brits, and God knows the Brits won't adjust theirs for the Americans.
--tc
At 09:56 AM 4/9/02 +1000, Kakajit wrote:
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!
The policy is, basically, that any standard form of English is cool--US, Oz, UK, Canada, NZ, India, etc. If all the other person did was replace Australian usage with American, I'd say you're justified in reverting; if they also added information or otherwise improved the article, best to leave it, I think. (The second sentence here is one Wikipedian's opinion, not policy.)
What is the policy on language?
--
Karen AKA Kajikit
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Vicki Rosenzweig wrote:
At 09:56 AM 4/9/02 +1000, Kakajit wrote:
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!
The policy is, basically, that any standard form of English is cool--US, Oz, UK, Canada, NZ, India, etc. If all the other person did was replace Australian usage with American, I'd say you're justified in reverting; if they also added information or otherwise improved the article, best to leave it, I think. (The second sentence here is one Wikipedian's opinion, not policy.)
Ok, thanks guys... I just figured out how to reincorporate 'my' information into the article. I'll just make a sentence that says that 'in Australia ice cream is sold in milk bars' etc and then I can cross-reference milk bar to an entry of its own.
Sorry to be pedantic... I'm not really that hung up about it!
PS. I just asked my American fiance if he knew what a milk bar was and he said he didn't know anything about Australian chocolate bars and could I send him a photo! [giggles] It's actually a kind of shop. :)
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