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

Tue Oct 5 23:15:15 UTC 2004

Whoops, meant to complete this sentence:

If WP can come up with a mechanism and policy to conditionally display
milliard|billion, slate|schedule definitively, it should.

-Andrew (User:Fuzheado)

On Wed, 6 Oct 2004 07:13:45 +0800, Andrew Lih <andrew.lih at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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)
> 

-- 
Andrew Lih
andrew.lih at gmail.com