[Wikipedia-l] Language icons (was: en.wikipedia.org vs www.wikipedia.org and the Wikipedia family)

[tarquin]

Jimmy Wales wrote:

>I totally agree about the flags -- I'm against them.  Flags are for
>countries, not languages.
>
That seems to be emerging as a consensus.

>
>lcrocker at nupedia.com wrote:
>  
>
>>I do, however, like the idea of representing languages with images
>>of famous contributors in that language; this could be used in
>>lots of places writing about Wikipedia.  I'd suggest Shakespeare,
>>Hugo, Cervantes as the obvious English/French/Spanish ones.
>>I don't know who would be appropriate for the others.
>>    
>>
This idea is neat, but several problems have been pointed out:
1. not all of these people are recognisable
2. it's a bit simplistic to reduce an entire language to one person
3. (not yet been raised, but...) they're all male.
4 (another not-yet raised) they're all literary figures. The scientists 
might complain. The Two Cultures and all that!

Despite the above, I think it's a nice idea, *IF* we don't depend on it 
for comprehension -- that is, have the name of the language in words, 
and a small thumbnail image to make the portal page a bit more interesting.

Further, I suggest we have several people for each language, and rotate 
them on a regular basis.

At any rate, have we agreed on the move from www. to en. ?