[Wikipedia-l] Fairness in voting

Fri Jan 13 16:31:54 UTC 2006

> It starts with him espousing his POVs.

I agree that this is mostly a Moldovan/Romanian POV on the current issue,
still it does not lie in its statements. http://mo.wikipedia.org/wiki
/Wikipedia:Alegeri. And this I can tell, knowing all "four languages" and
having made my school in Moldova (the Transnistria issue is somehow
specific).

Now, so far, of all the people who voted, the vast majority areRomanians.
> How is that fair? Romanians get to decide the future of theMoldovan
> Wikipedia, but no *other* foreigners may weigh in?

Probably the vote on http://mo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Alegeri is not
quite fair. However, Moldova and Romania are inherently linked together.
Historically Bessarabia (the present day Republic of Moldova, with slight
modifications of course) is to be part of Romania and it was a simple
historical accident that at the time when Moldavia united with Wallachia (in
1859, which become the foundation of modern Romania), Bessarabia was
incorporated into the Russian empire (starting with 1812). This accident was
corrected after the First World War when Bessarabia decided to unite with -
already - Romania. To be continued... This is a personal and probably very
subjective view of my country's history.

My point is that Romanians have the necessary legitimacy to require
essentially the same as Moldovans do: to delete this Wikipedia. Especially
that it is about the Romanian language that we are talking about. But I do
not want to commence here this already annoying debate.

However, I do not believe it is fair to interdict other Wikipedians to vote
there. Nor do I agree much with the 25 necessary contributions to be made on
mo.wiki or ro.wiki. Personally, I cannot vote at the moment, although I
believe I quite have the right. Anyway, anyone can do them in a matter of an
hour. Not necessarily knowing the language.

My thoughts: taking into consideration the current stubbornness of the two
camps (those for and against the deletion of the mo.wikipedia) consensus
cannot be reached in a normal way. A vote may solve this down.
A properly organized vote.

Still, those for the deletion of the mo.wiki come mainly from Moldova and
Romania. And both Moldovans and Romanians have legitimate demands. Even
though some are currently abroad (some for already a long time, others -
like me - have just left Moldova), they all know what language we are
speaking in Moldova. And they all speak this language. I do not think that
the other camp can boast with the same legitimacy. If you tell me that there
are Moldovans between those supporting the Wikipedia, I can bet that these
are primarily Russian language speaking persons. From Russian speaking
families. I may be wrong. (I recall that the Russian speaking minority in
Moldova... Well, they do not feel love towards Moldovans and especially
towards those considering themselves Romanians).

Furthermore, initially the "for the deletion camp" wanted to make this
Wikipedia disappear and not reappear in any form. Finally, on [Wikipedia-l]
Why MO.wikipedia. - Moldovan, are written in cyrillic ? (
http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2005-December/042926.html ),
we made a step backward and agreed to move the mo.wiki to a mo-cyr.wiki: it
is agreed that this Moldovan Cyrillic language existed in its time (imposed)
in MSSR and exists (is imposed) in Transnistria. This does not seem to
satisfy the other camp.

This is an endless debate. The issue does not seem to interest much people
on Wikipedia-I, especially those having the authority to make a change. And
it does not get solved. And this is something that concerns our country and
our language. And it is shown in a rather misinterpreted way on Wikipedia.

This is why Romanians and Moldovan's are getting angry from time to time;
quite often, I think. This is why Wikipedia-I is flooded with issues
surrounding the existence of the Moldovan Wikipedia. This is why pages like
the one mentioned at the beginning of this message appear.

And problems around the Moldovan Wikipedia and a presumed Moldovan Cyrillic
Wikipedia will appear as more Moldovans and Romanians discover it.
Personally, when I saw it for the first time, I was nothing else but
outraged.

And I am not that sure where will
http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4409
lead to. Neither am I sure what is fairer: the  vote under discussion or
keeping this entire abnormal Wikipedia alive (personal opinion).

--
Liviu