Anthere-
So, to your opinion, Jimbo is the only one
(currently,
since there is no board yet) to have the power to say
whether yes or no, an international wikipedia can have
a logo not written in english, or have a different
default skin (picked up in the list of all skins
available for all wikipedias of course) ?
Look, we both agree that the current English logo sucks, OK? So basing an
argument against a largely similar logo among all Wikipedias on the
current logo is really not very fair. I have not voiced any objections to
the French Wikipedia coming up with their own logo because it is
reasonable for you to choose a French logo over an English one, but I
would have preferred it if you had made an effort to push for a new,
international logo instead.
As for changing the default skin, the only wiki that has done so, so far,
is the Esperanto wiki, and this was done by Brion without much (any?)
discussion. We currently have no policy on this, and there are only two
ways to set up such a policy within our current system:
- decision by Jimbo Wales
- authorization of a vote by Jimbo Wales
- consensus among all Wikipedians, including Jimbo Wales (not gonna
happen)
Since Wikipedia is not a dictatorship where everything that is not
expressly allowed is forbidden, in the absence of a policy, it would be OK
for any of the existing wikis to change its default skin. It would be
courteous and wise to wait for a word from Jimbo before doing so.
I am more dubious of the arguments given for not
allowing non similar default skin for example. I
maintain that very likely, a reader will limit himself
"most of the time" to one language only.
While that it is quite possibly true, even if only a minority of authors
spends time on two or more wikis, and even if this time is spent 90/10 on
one wiki vs. the other, having different skins will be confusing. I speak
from first hand experience: To do some usability testing on the Cologne
Blue skin (which I personally have grown to dislike quite strongly) I have
set up my account on de: to use CB. Now when I switch between en: and de:,
finding the navigational elements becomes *very* difficult, because CB is
so much different from the standard skin.
There is another effect: When I first visited the Esperanto Wikipedia out
of curiosity, I didn't know about CB yet and initially wondered whether
this was still part of the same project -- there was no logo, the site was
called "Vikipedio", and it looked entirely different. Many other visitors
have reported the same experience on the Village Pump and elsewhere. This
kind of reaction goes against anything that a common project with a common
name stands for. It deteriorates the Wikipedia brand and common identity.
If they switch, they will perhaps not be
"new" to
wikipedia concept,
It's *especially* the new users that will likely check out other languages
simply to see what's there.
as long as *all* skins are available to *all*
wikipedias, I see not why we would make one wikipedia
unhappy
Who will be unhappy? Are we really talking about strong tendencies within
the Wikipedias, or only about single individuals who are very vocal? Is
there such a thing as a "cultural preference" for a certain skin? The
numbers certainly do not indicate this. The following percentages of users
have changed their skin from the default to "Cologne Blue":
German: 19.4%
English: 8.58%
French: 11.8%
Polish: 12%
Chinese: 9.18%
Dutch: 7.42%
Swedish: 7.55%
The only Wikipedia here that has a substantially different number from all
others is the German one. Is this because Cologne is a city in Germany?
Probably not -- the current German main page has been heavily changed in
favor of Cologne Blue, and there has been lots of propaganda for CB on
some German Wikipedia pages and on the mailing list, raising awareness of
the existence of the skin. I conclude that the different cultures are
reasonably similar for us to set an international default, and that it is
only a vocal minority that opposes such a step.
Regards,
Erik