[Wikipedia-l] be: and be-x-old: interwiki

[Lars Aronsson]

Yury Tarasievich wrote:

> The alternative Belarusian speakers which comprise the majority of old
> [[be:]] crew simply *hate* the normative variant of Belarusian, and
> that's the start and the end of it.

If there was a peaceful relationship between speakers of the two 
variants of Belarusian, they would long ago have recognized each 
other and made sure both had language codes, just like it works 
for Norwegian.  As you state, this is not the case.  Instead, this 
is a case where "good fences make good neighbors".  If each 
language community could have their own playground with a strong 
fence between, they could each play there without disturbing the 
other.  However, for better or worse, such fences cannot really 
exist inside the Wikimedia Foundation.  The WMF community of 
projects and languages is not divided into groups who hate each 
other.  Content and people are flowing free between the projects 
and languages.  This "WMF unity" is what every subgroup must be a 
part of.  If they can't, they must go somewhere else.

I'm not speaking for the Foundation.  On the contrary, I once left 
Wikipedia to start an alternative website because I didn't agree 
with how things were being done in Wikipedia at the time (in 
2001).  I'm speaking from experience, when I recommend the 
"be-tarask" community to *consider* the option of leaving 
Wikipedia and setting up shop on their own server or on a hosting 
provider such as Wikia.  Note however: I'm not recommending you to 
leave, I'm recommending you to *consider* this option.  What would 
it mean for you?  It could mean more freedom, being able to do 
things your way, not being subject to the policies of the 
Foundation.  It would certainly mean isolation, as you would no 
longer be part of Wikipedia, the internationally renown free 
encyclopedia.  Would the freedom be worth this?  It's your choice.

And ultimately: Would the chance to stay within Wikipedia be worth 
the sacrifice to cooperate with the community of speakers of 
official Belarusian?  Instead of hating their spelling?



-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se