[Wiktionary-l] Re: [Wikipedia-l] Religious intolerance

[Gerard Meijssen]

Thomas R. Koll wrote:

>On Mon, Dec 27, 2004 at 04:46:13PM +0100, Gerard Meijssen wrote:
>
>  
>
>>The wikimedia projects have a rule that the only soundfiles allowed are 
>>the .ogg files. This is a handicap as many people do not have software 
>>to play these files. So the only way to have people GET the necessary 
>>software is by making these files more relevant. The next question is 
>>HOW do you make them relevant.
>>    
>>
>
>On de: we have now 35 spoken articles, some quite outdated but it's
>a beginning. All ogg of course.
>
>About the other things, I think you should retry it but this time
>include all the other big religious events like Ramadan, Chanukka,
>Chinese New Year etc.
>
>ciao, tom
>  
>
For the nl:wiktionary we have over 300 sound files with pronunciations 
of words in the Dutch language alone. They are much easier to use than 
phonetic notations. As such it would be cool to have the standard 
pronunciations recorded and available from Commons for all wiktionary words.

As to the project. There are many more projects in wiktionary that are 
more important than also having wishes for ramadan, chanukka just to 
satisfy this false sense of "equality" of some. When someone starts to 
record these wishes in wiktionary, I will be happy to lend a hand.

On the English wiktionary there is a project to have the 1000 "most 
important" words defined and translated to many languages. There are 
people experimenting with bots that may automagically copy content from 
one wiktionary to another. There are the many thousands of words that we 
would like to add to the wikitonaries and have in files on our local 
harddisks. There are the phrases that people may want to know when they 
go abroud. There are the ideas about a next generation wiktionary. There 
is the GEMET data that we really want to include in the wiktionaries. 
There is so much more going on than just this project that was intended 
as a fun thing to do.

The "Buon Natale" project was a small fun project with an intentional 
small scope. We love it. It was and is fun. But it is what we made it 
and not what someone else wants it to be. I am not aware of people 
sending cards at chanukka or ramadan. I also do not know if and how you 
say "Happy Ramandan". We have written several times during the last 
month or so about our project and everytime we asked people to 
contribute and expand the project by writing about the traditions that 
they know. Not only but also about their christmas.

So again, do write about channuka and ramandan in wikipedia and do add 
relevant phrases and words in wiktionary. Inform us about the difference 
times of the start of ramadan. About the three days of the birth of 
Jezus. About the differences in the way a christmastree is decorated in 
Italy compared to Germany. About the carp as a traditional dish at 
easter in Poland. But  other people do have different sensibilities and 
do not make what you believe override everything and everyone else 
believes and values. To me the censorship of the "Bon Natale" project 
was a nasty surprise, to me it shows an intolerance that I had not 
expected from the wikipedia crowd.

There will be other projects and other moments, that will be mo

Thanks,
    GerardM