[Wikipedia-l] anglicization is stupid

Mon Nov 18 08:18:42 UTC 2002

 Bridget [name omitted for privacy reasons] <lapollutionestsimauvaise at yahoo.com> wrote:
we should refer to spacecraft from the USSR according to their Russian name-not according to the English name.

I read the argument on that issue. Meanwhile, I had a foolish thought.

Say, it is maybe not entirely clear in my mind...but is wikipedia intended only for those readers who are share english as their mother langage ?

Or what is not also meant to be a deep-broad-reliable-extensive-neutral-wonderful encyclopedia, which could be a great resource for the whole world (i.e., any person who could more or less read english well enough to benefit from that great tool) ?

If the latter, would not that make sense from time to time maybe, to actually use the most widely used name for an "object" which is not english, or the most widely used "name" for a non-english person, rather than the name which is most widely known by native-english-people ?

Er, well, *cough*, *cough*, just a target audience issue stepping in again. Oups.

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