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

[Sam Korn]

On 12/22/06, Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
> How many users are working at any one time at en.wikipedia? And you can
> remember the vandals by name .. I am impressed .. but somehow I doubt
> it. I think you use the history views of the contributions of that user,
> the talk pages of that user and for that you do not even have to know
> what the user name is.

OK, think about this.  I'm looking at Special:Recentchanges.  I see an
edit by [[User:David Gerard]].  I ignore this edit.  It's David.  I
know he's a good editor.  Now I see an edit by [[User:Fabien1309]],
who is a fr admin who has a rarely-used en account.  I don't recognise
him, but I see the edit, see it's a good one, and he goes on my mental
whitelist.

Now I see [[User:ผู้ใช้:ธวัชชัย]], who is an admin on th.  I look at
the edit, and it's a good one.  But how am I to whitelist him/her?
It's impossible, or near enough.  And the same would go for ja, zh, or
el (I can read Greek script, but I'm in the definite minority...)

Even a set of numbers is easier to memorise.

> And for all the ????? you only have to have to install the appropriate
> fonts .. You are talking about self inflicting damage that you roll over
> on people that have earned respect. From the point of good faith, it is
> hardly that.

So now, in order to contribute helpfully to vandal-fighting (for
instance) in a Wikipedia in someone's own language, they have to
install all world fonts.  Yes.  That will really encourage people to
join up.

Don't we try to aim at a low barrier for entry?

-- 
Sam