[Wikipedia-l] New request for Cantonese Wikipedia: vote at 29-6

[Jimmy Wales]

Mark Williamson wrote:
> Jimbo, my whole point in informing an international mailinglist, and
> ALL people who listed themselves as Cantonese speakers (including a
> few who ended up voting against a Cantonese Wikipedia), was that it
> seemed to me unfair to give Mandarin-only users an extra tip-off when
> no other community got one.

Makes zero sense to me.  Mandarin-only speakers are affected by this,
and deserve a voice.

> Zy26, "oppose", from "Northeast China" [zhongguo dongbei] (a
> Mandarin-speaking area)
> BenBenI, "oppose", from Chengdu (a Mandarin-speaking city)
> Alexcn, "oppose", from Nanjing (a Mandarin-speaking city)

And these people should be silenced?

> If Kosovo wants to be internationally recognised as completely
> independent from Serbia, who should vote on it? All of Serbia, or just
> Kosovars? Certainly, if it is up to ALL of Serbia, they will remain
> part of Serbia, while if it is up to the Kosovars only, they may very
> well not.

This is a wildly inaccurate analogy.

Here's a better analogy: if Kosovars want a separate *wikipedia* from
the Serbians, for political reasons rather than linguistic reasons, who
should vote on it?  All of Serbian Wikipedia?  Or just Kosovars?  (Or,
my position, everyone who takes an interest, with the poll widely
advertised to everyone who might be affected, including Bosnians,
Croatians, etc.)

> Before the vote, everyone who wanted a Cantonese Wikipedia was
> thinking, "what's the holdup?? how is it that andrew lih and
> shengjiong ran over us with a steamroller in the court of Jimbopinion,
> but we had the majority and we cited sources to support our argument
> when they didn't???". That was the motivation for the vote, to have
> something that screamed for attention by giving a concrete message of
> how many people support it, that would be difficult to ignore.

You raise many valid points, to be sure.  But it is pretty easy to
ignore a poll which is admittedly rigged to exclude those most likely to
dissent.

--Jimbo