[WikiEN-l] Re: [[Anti-French sentiment in the United States]]

Mon May 24 06:54:29 UTC 2004

I had very few edit wars on Wikipedia in more than 2 years.
Basically, I went in edit war over the Gaia articles with RK, and with a 
Fat Buddha on this one : 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-French_sentiment_in_the_United_States

I decided not to touch it again, because I thought it was a hopeless 
article. I mentionned how bad it was on this very list, more than a year 
ago, and other french people asked with me, that some people work on it, 
to straighten it a bit. But as Eclecticology would say, it is not to 
french people to edit it, since it is about the way American people see us.

 From time to time, I go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Americanism

And I wonder why the one about anti-americanism is such a bland article, 
when the one about us is crap. I invite neutral editors to compare both 
articles.

I see that article, as a perfect example of what Wikipedia should *not* be.
And after more than a year it being crap, I have doubts in the process.

The first paragraph is particularly impressive. It is a collection of 
opinions, none of which are attributed. It does not explain anything. It 
is a set of "some people think", "it is said that", "one could also say 
that". This article is not really informative. It does not explain the 
origin of these feelings. I hardly dare mention the title of this 
paragraph. It does not quantify disapproval either. In short, it fails 
its goal which is to describe and give information to understand why 
there is such a feeling.

However, there is one thing this article is very good at. It is the 
perfect article to raise anger, or even *hate* from French people. While 
I do not think that American would feel angered by the article on 
anti-americanism as it is right now. And I do not think Wikipedia should 
aim at raising "hate" feelings.

Viajero a écrit:
> Is any one else bothered by the current state of [[Anti-French sentiment in the United States]]?
> 
> The article now presents a set of "accusations" which include some of the worst, most tasteless clichés, all presented in psuedo-objective style. Would anyone with a strong stomach care to tackle this stuff? 
> 
> I think Wikipedia should do better than this but I am not quite sure how.
> 
> 
> V.