[Foundation-l] English Wikipedia ethnocentric policy affects other communities

[Gerard Meijssen]

geni schreef:
> On 12/21/06, Yann Forget <yann at forget-me.net> wrote:
>   
>> Yes, one big part of the  problem goes away: that to find out if the user
>> is a vandal or a known user on some other wikis.
>> If I understand GerardM's explanations correctly, it will be possible to
>> easily find out on which wikis this user has edits, so you will know if
>> it is a new account or not.
>>
>>     
>
> Sleeper accounts are a common tactic so age means little.
>
>   
>> Beside that, don't you think that the English Wikipedia is not the only
>> wikis in which most of the users can't understand non Latin scripts?
>>
>> Actually as the English Wikipedia is much more international than other
>> languages wikis, it is propably the opposite, i.e. there are many
>> editors on the English Wikipedia whose mother tongue is not English,
>> compared to other European languages where there are very few editors
>> whose mother tongue is the language of the wiki.
>>
>> But yet no other Wikipedia has created or applied such a policy.
>>
>>     
>
> No other wikipedia could survive the level of continious attacks en
> has to deal with for a non trivial length of time.
Hoi,
No other WMF project has as many resources as the English language 
Wikipedia does. No other project gets as much attention from the 
developers. No other project does as well as a result. No other project 
can therefore withstand the constant abuse from vandals as successfully.

However, this does not mean that might is right. It also does not mean 
that arguments used that are in opposition to some of its policies can 
be ignored as is currently happening. There are many things I do not 
care about. Having people decently treated is one. With the improvements 
that have happened like the prevention of mixed script user names and 
the upcoming the SUL the arguments for the practice of blocking non 
Latin users on sight have been largely removed. It is sad that this is 
not acknowledged and that discussion has deteriorated into little more 
than denial and name calling.

Thanks,
     GerardM