[WikiEN-l] Re: [Wikipedia-l] anglicization is stupid

Toby Bartels toby+wikipedia at math.ucr.edu
Mon Nov 18 22:29:02 UTC 2002


Lir wrote:

>we should refer to spacecraft from the USSR according to their Russian name-not
>according to the English name.

As it happens, Lir, I agree with you.  English corruptions suck.
(And while we're at it, that's "SSSR", not "the USSR" ^_^.)
But the Wikipedia standard for a rather long time
(as long as *I*'ve been here, at any rate)
has been to use the most common name used in English.
Now, if you want to change that, then this is the place
to make your arguments.  But if you just move articles now,
then you're only going to make people mad at you.
You *first* have to convince the rest of them to agree with you,
and *then* you and I (and anybody else that cares about it)
can start moving articles over to their new names.

This might, of course, never happen.
You might never manage to convince the other people.
If I had to guess, I'd guess that it will never happen,
although I might be wrong, so you should present your arguments.
But please don't try to force your opinion on Wikipedia now.
People will just change it back, and they'll start to hate you,
and then they'll ban you (some are trying to do this already),
and then you won't be able to do anything on Wikipedia ever again.
*I* don't think that that would be a very good outcome.
We all need to work *together*, and that means compromises sometimes.


-- Toby


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     You can go to <http://www.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l>
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