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

[Sam Korn]

On 12/22/06, Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
> When, as the current practice seems to be, block immediately, there is
> no argument that these users are the victim of this policy.

Yep.

> The suggestion of making people known by a
> number is dehumanising and, it does not work either because people
> typically do not remember numbers.

And nor do they remember words in foreign scripts.  I'd take numbers any day.

> You are objecting and you reserve the right not to do the obvious thing
> and install fonts.

No, people are saying that it is an unreasonable demand to say that
people *must* install fonts.

> You object and you do not intent to look at the
> history of people on the WMF that will be much better available under
> SUL.

No, we see that SUL will bring advantages.  You don't see that it also
brings problems.

> You object while the problem of mixed script users has already been
> solved.

But other issues remain...

> You do not consider SUL and its obvious implication that we
> /will /have one person one user.

Is anyone disputing this?  Is anyone saying SUL is a bad thing?  Stop
putting up strawmen.

> You seem to be of the opinion that the
> English language Wikipedia is a law on to itself.

Well, we say the English Wikipedia is unique because of its size and
prominence.  Is that the same as being a law unto itself?  No.

> PS You is not meant as only you personally, it is there for all who
> cling to this bad policy.

So, um, who?  People recognise that the policy as written is not
optimal.  Pretty much everyone realises the conflict that the
implementation of SUL has brought. Do you see the conflict, or are you
blind to en.wikipedia's problems?

-- 
Sam