[Foundation-l] Throwing some data onto the flamefest fire (was: English Wikipedia ethnocentric policy affects other communities)

[James Hare]

Guys, girls, people (and objects) who are neither,

We will not go anywhere if we keep shouting "RACISM!!!!! DIEDIEDIE" back and
forth. I am dead serious about this.

If you want to get anywhere, we must discuss objectively and address the
issues like mature ladies and gentlemen.

Pros:
- Less of a technical issue on English Wikipedia for those who don't have
the ability (or permission) to install new fonts
- Allows people of the community to identify people with a name they can
understand, as opposed to using what they will just see as squiggly lines.

Being able to fight vandalism was a pro, but then technical fixes came along
that prohibited mixing different writing scripts.

Cons:
- Does not allow people to use the name they really want.
- SUL issues: with all sorts of different usernames, it'll be hard to have a
-single- user login when you have to have multiple because of script
requirements.

I've stated this many times -- I like the idea of system transliteration for
each wiki. Or at least a way to have an identity that's different from the
username you log in with, so you can have a uniform username but you can be
identified with what will be considered a comprehendable name.

What other remedies can you suggest?

Serious discussion starts now.

On 12/22/06, Milos Rancic <millosh at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 12/23/06, geni <geniice at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 12/23/06, Milos Rancic <millosh at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > This case needs referendum on English Wikipedia,
> >
> > There is no pratical way to do that.
>
> (Public) referendum is possible: just make a poll and then announce it
> on Watclist, Sitenotice, Main Page and other relevant pages.
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