[Foundation-l] English Wikipedia ethnocentric policy affects other communities

[Gerard Meijssen]

Sam Korn schreef:
> On 12/22/06, Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> How many users are working at any one time at en.wikipedia? And you can
>> remember the vandals by name .. I am impressed .. but somehow I doubt
>> it. I think you use the history views of the contributions of that user,
>> the talk pages of that user and for that you do not even have to know
>> what the user name is.
>>     
>
> OK, think about this.  I'm looking at Special:Recentchanges.  I see an
> edit by [[User:David Gerard]].  I ignore this edit.  It's David.  I
> know he's a good editor.  Now I see an edit by [[User:Fabien1309]],
> who is a fr admin who has a rarely-used en account.  I don't recognise
> him, but I see the edit, see it's a good one, and he goes on my mental
> whitelist.
>
> Now I see [[User:ผู้ใช้:ธวัชชัย]], who is an admin on th.  I look at
> the edit, and it's a good one.  But how am I to whitelist him/her?
> It's impossible, or near enough.  And the same would go for ja, zh, or
> el (I can read Greek script, but I'm in the definite minority...)
>
> Even a set of numbers is easier to memorise.
>
>   
>> And for all the ????? you only have to have to install the appropriate
>> fonts .. You are talking about self inflicting damage that you roll over
>> on people that have earned respect. From the point of good faith, it is
>> hardly that.
>>     
>
> So now, in order to contribute helpfully to vandal-fighting (for
> instance) in a Wikipedia in someone's own language, they have to
> install all world fonts.  Yes.  That will really encourage people to
> join up.
>
> Don't we try to aim at a low barrier for entry?
You do not lower the barrier of entry to Wikipedia by blocking people on 
sight. You are talking about people who are admins so we can tell them 
that they have to install fonts. Admins are people who choose to do the 
admin work. At issue is that people using their standard user are 
treated worse than anonymous users Really that is outrageous..

Thanks,
    GerardM