[Foundation-l] Wikimedia visual identity guidelines

Sat Nov 5 15:27:47 UTC 2011

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Wikimedia_visual_identity_guidelines

>    - The full logo will be used, and a subline will be added under the
>    word WIKIMEDIA.
>
>
>    - The subline can be localized (eg. name of the country in the
>    relevant language/languages). It can consist of one or more lines and
>    can be written in the relevant script/ideograms. The WIKIMEDIA part of the
>    logo will *not* be localized.
>
>
The guideline is problematic particularly for some languages - particularly
non-latin ones such as Arabic, Persian, Chinese, Japanese and various other
far eastern communities.

In the case of Turkish there is no letter W and the sounds for I (ı) and İ
(i) differ. Furthermore there is no way to read "ia" as vowels aren't
supposed to be next to each other. A localized version of the name would be
VİKİMEDYA rather than WIKIMEDIA.

The goal "common visual identity" shouldn't make foundations name
unpronounceable in other languages. If the goal can be expressed with the
slogan "Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share
in the sum of all knowledge" then names of chapters shouldn't be forced to
use characters unpronounceable or outright alien to the local population. I
do not see how variants such as Wikimédia or Vikimedya would prevent a
common visual identity...

  -- とある白い猫  (To Aru Shiroi Neko)