[Wikipedia-l] Re: [Wikitech-l] Hyperlink convention

Tue Oct 5 23:13:45 UTC 2004

On Tue, 05 Oct 2004 15:48:33 -0700, David Friedland <david at nohat.net> wrote:
> 
> I want to note that all my examples are from the American perspective
> because I am American. Also, it is my understanding (although I don't
> have any firm proof of this) that American culture has a stronger
> overall impact on the British than the reverse, due partly to global
> American cultural hegemony and partly to rampant cultural isolationism
> in the US. In other words, my guess is that it is more likely British
> readers will be familiar with American usage than the other way around.

We should not forget, however, that English, and a British derived
one, is an official language of 1 milliard (er, billion) people in
India. And that the Beeb (that's BBC to non Brits) is a more
influential news source globally than any American broadcast concern.
However, I do agree that given contemporary media exposure, American
English tends to have more overall impact given the number of pirated
films and music around the world.

As Jimbo said, we should not overengineer the system to weed out all
color|colour and flavor|flavour in our English articles. But I do
agree with you though - in situations where precision is paramount
(ie. scientific articles, statistics, legal issues, politics, etc.)
this stylistic confusion should not be left open ended. If WP can come
up with a mechanism and policy to conditionally display
milliard|billion, slate|schedule definitively.

PS - I can speak as someone close to this subject, as I recently moved
from an American style to a British style university system.

-- 
Andrew (User:Fuzheado)