[Foundation-l] Cultural awareness and sensitivity

[Michael Snow]

On 6/7/2010 5:25 PM, Aphaia wrote:
> True, but it reminded me on the time English Wikipedia sanctioned
> non-latin script usernames and blocked them indefinitely and forced
> them to rename for months. At that time many English Wikipedia sysops
> supported this idea and much more of them were indifferent. If I
> recall correctly, no board member offered any complaint on that as you
> stated now.
>    
That's before I joined the board, but actually Florence, who was chair 
of the board then, definitely did speak up on that issue at the time.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2006-December/059034.html
> I think I can understand your frustration but still I feel it
> overreaction.  I need to say unconcious Anglocentric hegemony on
> Wikimedia project is sometimes irritating, not only the recent
> suppression of "other language" links, and English speaking people
> should be much more aware of that, rest their complaints won't be
> listened to, even in case it is valid by itself, like in this case.
>    
The specific case here isn't so much the issue, it's an example to 
illustrate the larger concern about how we make our culture insular and 
closed, such that the environment seems hostile to others. Certainly 
English-speaking people are as responsible for that as any other part of 
our community, if not more, as your example illustrates. But given the 
seriousness implications this has for the overall health of our 
community in the long term, I don't think it's an overreaction to want 
to address it.

--Michael Snow