[Foundation-l] Swedish Week on Russian Wikipedia

[Kalan]

2008/5/18, Lars Aronsson <lars at aronsson.se>:
>  The Russian wikipedians already missed the 200th anniversary of
>  the conquest of Sveaborg (May 3, 1808). I don't think they will
>  time today's final in the ice hockey world championships.  But I
>  also think they will be too early for the 299th anniversary of the
>  battle of Poltava (July 8, 1709).  So we will have to find some
>  other way to mark the Russian victory for a place around the
>  puzzle globe (http://www.wikipedia.org/).

Perhaps you are assuming too much of patriotism from Russian
Wikipedians. For example, 3 of 5 bureaucrats live far away from Russia
(2 are in Germany, one in Belgium). And up to 30% of other active
users have nothing to do with Russia. The language is wide-spread all
over the world, so we envy to be Russian-*language* international
encyclopedia above all. Other wikis' languages seem to be more
concentrated, and thus the primary country plays a more important role
there. However, symbolic relations are still present, and Swedish week
is an example of it.

In Russian Wikipedia, these "slogans" such as "догнать и перегнать
швекипедию!" ("let's leave swekipedia behind!"), "долой шведские
стабы" ("throw Swedish stubs away") and others, related to the events
you've mentioned, are having joky nature; no malicious intent or
harassment is behind.

>  A Russian
>  expression for helplessness is "like a Swede at Poltava"

As far as I remember, it hasn't been mentioned during the discussions,
although the battle itself arose in jokes.

>  It is surprising how well hockey-playing nations (Russia, Finland,
>  Sweden, Norway, Canada, USA, Germany, Poland, Czech Replublic) are
>  doing in Wikipedia.  Maybe this is what the Arabs should try.

Maybe, if they find good places to train. :)

— Kalan