The notion of policing Wikipedias in most languages is a nonstarter. Much
will depend on the level of cultural and political development of the
language users. One can anticipate that the Finnish wikipedia will function
well, partly because most Finnish internet users know English partly because
of their cultural and political traditions. Certain other languages will run
into various sorts of difficulties but it is just not practical to monitor
these things intensively except to the extent folks come to the English
lists and to Jimbo with problems. A light touch is appropriate in light of
the plain reality that we will seldom have access to specifics. One must
assume that at least some interpretation of Neutral Point of
View is adopted and used.
Fred
From: Jimmy Wales <jwales(a)bomis.com>
Reply-To: Wikimedia developers <wikitech-l(a)Wikipedia.org>
Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2003 06:49:45 -0800
To: Wikimedia developers <wikitech-l(a)Wikipedia.org>
Subject: Re: [Wikitech-l] Re: Control of and responsibility for various
wikipedia projects
Nikos-Optim wrote:
I think wikipedia should look the same, have the
same
policies and customs, and the same spirit, no matter
the language.
In terms of very high level policies, I agree with you. But there are
lots of little things that are dependent on culture. Let me give a
couple of examples.
1. I am told that in some languages, what is known as an encyclopedia
tends to include more 'mere definitions' that in English would
properly belong in a dictionary. So, if the French wikipedia chooses
to draw the line differently than we do about that sort of thing, I
don't see a problem with that.
2. It has been reported to me that on the Japanese wikipedia, there
is a stronger tendency to discuss things first on the talk page,
reaching a consensus, and then to update the article page. That's
consistent with Japanese culture. In en, of course, there's more of a
custom of boldly updating pages and while simultaneously arguing about
it on the talk pages. Either custom is valid, if it suits the people
who are doing the work.
--Jimbo
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