[Wikipedia-l] A language question

[kband at www.llamacom.com]

> 
> I am Australian, and so I write my articles using Australian English,
> which is pretty much the same as British English... somebody just came
> along and re-edited one of my articles, changing most of the terms over
> to US English and removing the Australianisms.  I know that most
> Americans wouldn't have a clue what a 'milk bar' was, but does that mean
> that I should NOT use the term in any of my writing? Australians use the
> internet too!
> 
> What is the policy on language? 

It's best to deal with things on a case-by-case basis instead of 
dealing in generalities where possible. What article was it?

To speak in generalities, the policy on language is pretty much the
policy on everything, which is: as long as what you do a) stays within
the mission of Wikipedia and b) doesn't upset other Wikipedians, it's
totally fine.

So the #1 policy is to not upset other Wikipedians unnecessarily (and
to try not to get upset over minutiae). If someone edited your article
so that it's understandable to a wider audience without eliminating 
information, then that was a good thing. If they removed information,
that's not so good.

If as an editor there's something which confuses you, you should use
the "Talk" to ask what's going on before editing.

Re: variants of English--feel free to write with whatever spelling you
prefer. We don't have any policy as to preferred spelling. See
http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/wikipedia%3AOther+Frequent+Questions

Q. American English though, I presume, not British English?

A. Why presume that? People are writing in all sorts of English. This
isn't necessarily a bad situation, either. Anyway, of course, the
Americans aren't going to adjust their usage for the Brits, and God
knows the Brits won't adjust theirs for the Americans.

--tc