Zoney wrote:
Most importantly, the whole BCE/CE thing is a POV lobby. It's nonsense to suggest that changing a very common phrase in the English language, hitherto used near-universally, is "neutral".
Now Wikipedia with NPOV policy certainly has to avoid siding with different POVs - but surely to use BCE/CE notation at all is indeed siding with a POV. Does every POV have to be accommodated on *some* articles in order to have NPOV?
Surely sticking to BC/AD, as has been used for centuries and centuries in the English language (almost certainly the vast majority using it without religious or political intent), is the most sensible option?
Wikipedia's ridiculous pandering to all the extremist POVs is not a good way to ensure NPOV in my opinion, and seriously dints its credability.
I suspect many have no idea how absurd it appears to a non-USian to see BCE/CE spreading across Wikipedia
Just wanted to note how ironic it is to see an argument against BCE/CE, based on the universal use of BC/AD, while simultaneously using the term non-USian in place of the similarly universal term non-American.
--Michael Snow