[Wikimedia-l] Russian Wikipedia in blacklist trouble again

[Anthony Cole]

In your hypothetical case of Russian only being spoken in one country that
censors "how to smoke marijuana" information:

If you insist on leaving a paragraph on "how to make a bong" in the
Russian-language "Marijuana smoking" article, then the article won't be
accessible to 140,000,000 people; if you remove that paragraph (and any
others that are censored), the article, and its information about
psychosis, respiratory effects, geographic distribution, history,
correlation with tobacco smoking, gateway to harder drugs hypothesis, etc.
will be available to 140,000,000 people.

We would be failing in our mission to disseminate educational information
effectively and globally if, due to an ideological attachment to
NOTCENSORED, we took the former option.

If, however, there is a significant population outside Russia whose first
language is Russian, and who don't read one of the other main Wikipedia
languages, it's a more difficult decision. Do we deny them the bong-making
instructions so as to provide the remainder of the article to the Russian
readers?

I know what I'd do in that example. But my attachment to NOTCENSORED
doesn't trump my attachment to our mission.


On Thu, May 9, 2013 at 3:18 PM, Strainu <strainu10 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Yes, it is :) I'm not sure the actual point you were trying to make
> stands, though. Even if Russian would only be spoken in Russia, it
> still wouldn't be a reason to give in to censorship pressure. But of
> course, I'm talking from a country who doesn't have these problems so
> openly...
>
> Strainu
>
> 2013/5/9 Anthony Cole <ahcoleecu at gmail.com>:
> > I was relying on the infobox in English Wikipedia's article, "Russian
> > language." Is it safe to say Russian is spoken in many regions outside
> > Russia?
> >
> >
> > On Thu, May 9, 2013 at 4:42 AM, Russavia <russavia.wikipedia at gmail.com
> >wrote:
> >
> >> > Right, one might always read the English Wikipedia article and find
> >> > out we were both right (funny, huh? :) ) Totally agree that we don't
> >> > want to reopen this, though. Let's just say that Russian is NOT an
> >> > official language in Moldova.
> >>
> >> Nice to work with you on this mailing list to reach a mutually
> >> advantageous and NPOV position on this issue. :)
> >>
> >> Russavia
> >>
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