[Foundation-l] Preservation of cultural diversity and minority languages

[Jussi-Ville Heiskanen]

<REPAIRING TOP POSTING ERROR>

> On Feb 9, 2008 9:04 AM, Jussi-Ville Heiskanen <cimonavaro at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Please do understand that I for one am of the opinion that for reasons
> > of comprehensivity, the english language wikipedia must remain a
> > special concern, and for which reason the current swing away from
> > an aspiration towards comprehensiveness on the english language
> > wikipedia is to me a deeply regrettable developement.
>
>On 2/9/08, Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hoi,
> Who is stopping anyone from working towards a comprehensive English
> Wikipedia ? What makes you say this is happening? If people are not
> contributing towards this goal, they are surely doing something that they
> feel is of value. Are they, as a result, stopping you from making your goal
> happen?
> Thanks,
>       GerardM

Well, let me first note that it is somewhat amusing to me to note how
you managed to personalise this matter, having previously complained
about the negative tone on this mailing list.

I was making a general point about the english wikipedia, without meaning
to refer to any specific people on it.

Just to make sure I do not engage in personalizing the matter, let me use
as an example an article created by a person I have myself clashed with
in the past (some people will know better than others how deeply) to show
how there is a palpable chilling effect for article creation on the english
wikipedia. The creator of the page is a long time wikipedian, who nobody
in their right mind would consider a bleeding heart inclusionist. Or more
correctly, nobody in their right mind *would* have called him that, in a
more gentle era.

Our article on the [[true Catholic Church]] (and yes, apparently the "true"
in the name is not written with a capital "T"), which used to be a thoughtful
and thorough analysis on the doctrines the church holds, is now a redirect
to its leader, which is a bare biographical sketch.

If you are interested in what the "debate" for its deletion was like:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/True_Catholic_Church

Just to balance things out, wikipedia doesn't have an article on the
Estonian led international movement to create a LaVeyan church
explicitly disavowing all evil influences, known as The Order of the
Black Venus.

Both deletions are things that affect me personally not at all, but for the
chilling effect they have on my perception of what is welcomed at
wikipedia. But that chilling effect is real.

If you want to know what article I personally have created, has been
given the cold shoulder treatement, let me just say that I know fully
well, that I could source an article on [[Karri Miettinen]] aka. [[Paleface]]
right up the wazoo. He was a subject of a scholarly comparative
article discussing artistic practises in movie subtitle translation,
authored for a top level cultural European Union panel, and has had
and will continue to have media exposure (just most lately landing
a position as a regular on a television game show) and publish via
a major label (EMI, who specifically - according to the scholarly
article referenced above - gave great liberties to his translation
of Eminems movie 8 Miles song lyrics in deference to his artistic
credentials and standing). But you know, I prefer to work in areas
where I *don't* have to fight over every articles existence and over
every sentence. I prefer to work where I feel confident that my work
will be naturally accepted as constructive.



Jussi-Ville Heiskanen, ~ [[User:Cimon Avaro]]