[Wikipedia-l] Why MO.wikipedia. - Moldovan, are written in cyrillic ?

Sun Dec 4 20:58:48 UTC 2005

One user asked me if my previous comment on this issue was meant to be a sarcastic one.
 So maybe I should explain a little bit more in detail what I meant.

 My point was:

 1. I can understand why a number of people who speak that language and live there are not content with the current modus operandi and why we keep getting complaints about this.

 2. My personal opinion is that we ought to make some changes.

 What I (and obviously many who are actually concerned by it) find unacceptable about the current situation:

 - When an internet user from the Republic of Moldova visits Wikipedia's homepage, he finds
 among others links to Wikipedia editions in "Român&#259;" and in "Moldoveneasc&#259;". 

 - There are people who think that Moldovan is a distinct language. There are people who think that Moldovan is simply different name for the Romanian. Everybody knows however that both
 Romanian and Moldovan are generally written in Latin script.  

 - Nevertheless,  on Wikipedia's homepage "Moldoveneasc&#259;" in not written in Latin script, like the Moldovan society has determined but in Cyrillic script like it was decreed in the unfree days of the Soviet union when the people of Moldova was not allowed to decide for themselves. 

 - This gives the Moldovan internet user a bad impression of Wikipedia and irritates him or her because they can think that Wikipedia ignores what the independent nation of Moldova decides and rather goes by the standard from the Soviet era.

 - Now, if that user clicks on that cyrillic "Moldoveneasc&#259;", he is taken to a page that tells him to make a decision if he prefers the Latin or the Cyrillic script.

 - What happens next is the following: If that user choses Latin (i. e. the standard script), he is told that his language is now considered Romanian by Wikipedia and taken to the Romanian Wikipedia. If, however the user should decide for some reason that he prefers Cyrillic (official script during the Soviet era),  Wikipedia  _now_  considers  his language Moldovan and he is taken to a Wikipedia named "Moldoveneasc&#259;".

 - And finally he realizes that this wiki that uses the Soviet standard which became suspended one and a half decades ago is given the subdomain "mo" (code reserved for Moldovan which is by default written in Latin script) by Wikipedia!

 Now I would like ask everybody who has had the patience to read this far: 

 Is there anybody who does _not_ understand why a large number of users from the region are upset by this weird arrangement?

 When, a few weeks ago, a couple of Wikipedians from the former Yugoslavia were telling us that they were feeling insulted and offended by the mere existence of an edition in Serbo-Croatian I was not able to comprehend that.

 But I do understand the irritation here and think it is well-justified.

 In a nutshell, Wikipedia currently delivers this message to users from Moldova:
 "If you're using the Latin script (like your national constitution says and like the majority of your compatriots do) we'll call your language Romanian but in case you should use Cyrillic, then we'll consider your language Moldovan".

 Is there anybody who thinks that there is no need to correct this awkward situation?

 Thanks for your time and attention!

 Arbeo

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