[Wikipedia-l] Re: Valentine's day!

[Neil Harris]

Tony Sidaway wrote:

>
>Hmmm, nice idea smashes into bedrock of cultural diversity.  I suggest
>that unless there is substantial willingness to set up a Wikipedia
>tradition of celebrating Diwali, Eid, Guru Nanak, Beltain, Chinese New
>Year, and whatever, in multiple languages, it's probably best to steer
>clear of this kind of thing altogether.
>
>  
>
Why not do exactly that? Wikipedia is a cross-cultural project, and
notices about festivals bring readers (and hence, potential editors)
into the site.

Why not make Christmas the featured article each Christmas day, Diwali
on Diwali, whichever Eid on that Eid day, and so on. They are all major
cultural events that touch the lives of many millions of our readers.
(Many millions of our readers? I think I can say that -- scary, isn't
it?). Covering these festivals will bring in many more readers from
various cultures and religions, helping reduce the systemic bias towards
the current dominant editor demographic on en:

If we want to do some special branding for each festival (Chinese
dragons, Christmas trees, Diwali lights...) a la Google, we might as
well stick that up too, if someone wants to do it.

I draw the line at Christmas-pudding logos or other logo-abominations,
though.

-- Neil