[Foundation-l] naming of things in kosovo

[Fred Bauder]

> Hi there, I have seen a big problem in getting people to contribute in
> kosovo to wikipedia
> except the Kosovo article, there they dont call in *Kosovo and
> Metohija*i,
> so I think there is a president for the english and albanian names in
> wikipedia.
> most of the names are in serbian, with strange characters that I cannot
> even
> type.
> this offends most contributors and prevents locals from contributing.
> also the serbs erase all albanian names from the referring links so I
> cannot
> even find what I am looking for.
> I would like to start to rename the articles to the albanian english
> spellings with normal typiable characters. Ideally we would use the
> albanian
> names and encourage the locals to edit. Right now there is a minority
> serb
> group that is making life unpleasant for the local contributors.
> see
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gjeravica
>
> can someone guide me on this.
> thanks,
> mike
>
> --
> James Michael DuPont
> Member of Free Libre Open Source Software Kosova and Albania flossk.org
> flossal.org

My advice is to take it easy. We have had this dispute in other areas of
the world, notably in the case of place names in Poland, most of which
was under German control at some point and has a German name for nearly
every possible location. Gdansk, Danzig, was a particular problem. I
don't remember exactly how that was resolved, but I do remember all the
fireworks.

Start by creating redirects from all Albanian names to the existing
articles if they are in Serbian, and vice-versa. Here's a tip, even if
you can't type something, you can always copy and paste it, for example:
Đeravica (Albanian: Gjeravica; Serbian Cyrillic:
Ђеравица). I don't know
that a redirect from
Ђеравица would be
necessary. That way every one can find their way around.

I see an unsigned note on the talk page of Đeravica:

Main reason to change, authors

Listen, let me present you with the biggest reason to change the name,
the local people are offended with the serbian names. They live there,
and they feel that wikipedia is biased to serbia. This is a major reason
not to contribute to wikipedia. It has been a big problem all the time.
The few vocal serbs who are pushing to keep the old name dont even live
there and cannot contribute much. the people who do live there and can
write are being excluded.

12:45, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

This is a familiar story to me, a lot of new people have moved to where I
live and find even the name of a prominent mountain "offensive", see
http://www.14ers.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=27964 I, of course, find
them offensive. That said, Wikipedia, while a bit safer than armed
combat, is not a battleground and there is little patience for edit
warring. As far as prejudice, I'm pretty sure some Serbians feel
Wikipedia is biased against them, and there may be a little truth in
that. They have a poor public image.

Wikipedia administrators will not put up with sustained ethnically-based
edit warring. However, any one place will have one name under our
conventions. How to decide? My intuitive idea is to tolerate Serbian
names for places that figure prominently in Serbian history, for example
the names of Serbian monasteries, palaces, forts, or battlefields, but
use Albanian for place names that now are predominately Albanian. There
is no Kosovo section at Wikipedia:Naming conventions (geographic names)
but that is where to set some guidelines after discussion with involved
editors.

In the case of Poland the discussion was extensive and guidelines are at
Wikipedia:Manual of Style (Poland-related articles) That is the sort of
resolution to work towards.

So, talk, as you are, on talk pages; be patient; realize the other side
also feels put upon and ask for help when you hit rough spots. Imposing a
rule from above would be paternalistic and oppressive and it would be
good if it could be avoided.

Fred Bauder