On 4/11/06, Sam Korn <smoddy(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On 4/11/06, Matt Brown <morven(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Yes, this IS english-speaker-centric, but the
very fact of writing an
encylopedia in English is already deciding to do that.
Thank you. This is a beautiful way of expressing something I've been
thinking about for some while.
Can you elaborate? Perhaps we should decide if we really want this
bias, or not? [[WP:CSB]] thinks we don't.
Question: To use Jimbo's well-worn poor African once again, what does
he expect? Georgia the country, or Georgia the state? Does he care
that most Wikipedians are American, British, Canadian, etc? Should he
just grateful for whatever information he can get, regardless of whose
biases, interests and prejudices it reflects? Should he not be
concerned if, when he looks up Zaire, he comes up with a suburb in
Arizona?
I did not raise this issue to bash Americans. Nor would I have a
complaint if a state in the US were disambig'ed with a terristory in
Pakistan. But for a mere state in the US to be considered somehow
"equal" in importance, interest, searchability as a *country* just
seems wrong. I'm really having trouble putting into words exactly why
I feel that way, so I'll leave it for a bit and come back to it.
[[WP:CSB]] really is worth a read.
Steve