[Wikipedia-l] Re: Minority/majority question

Sat Jul 31 14:52:59 UTC 2004

Gutza wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I hope I'm posting this on the right list, don't know where else to 
> turn. We have a minor dispute on the Romanian Wikipedia and I'd like to 
> ask for your advice. The dispute refers to the naming of an article 
> (would prefer not to specify which article, but it's a sensitive topic 
> with people). Now, there are two spellings proposed for the article 
> name: the one widely accepted in Romania and another one which is 
> preferred by a Romanian minority.
> 
> Some people say that the article should be named the way the Romanian 
> majority spells it, others say it should be named as the minority spells 
> it, as to respect the rights of the minority, and most importantly 
> Wikiquette. The article topic itself is not per se relevant to neither 
> the minority nor the majority in particular. Of course that in both 
> cases a redirect will be made from the "other" spelling to the main 
> article, regardless of which will remain as the main article and which 
> remains as a redirect.

Whatever the choice you finally agree upon, I would recommand that you 
do not start naming things based on attempts to follow politically 
correct considerations.

We are not here to be politically correct, but to be factual, or adapted 
to our readers.

Respecting a minority point of view is not attempting to pretend that 
this is the majority point of view, but only acknowledging that this 
minority view exist.

If you put a redirect from the minor to the general, and if you mention 
clearly in the general spelling that there are also other spellings 
used, and possibly also use that alternate spelling in a few carefully 
chosen articles (such as those about that minority in particular), I 
guess you could come to an agreement with reasonable people.

Anthere