[WikiEN-l] election

Fri Feb 28 05:35:02 UTC 2003

Nonsense.  Do you really think that there is anyone in the entire world
who would actually be unsure whether [[Pierre Trudeau]] belonged on a
[[List of Americans]]?

-----Original Message-----
From: wikien-l-admin at wikipedia.org
[mailto:wikien-l-admin at wikipedia.org]On Behalf Of james duffy
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2003 20:59
To: wikien-l at wikipedia.org
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] election

I would be dead set against 'List of Americans'. America has two
meanings.
It can be state-specific, the US, or geography-specific, the continent
of
America. We have to be ultra-careful to remember that Wiki is meant to
be a
world-wide sourcebook, which means avoiding causing (1) confusion, (2)
unnecessary offence, (3) inaccuracy.

'Claiming' US = America sets a precedent that poses the question, what
to we
call the 'continent' and how do we refer to people on the continent who
are
not resident in the US? 'Non-American Americans?'

This same problem exists on the island of Ireland.  Ireland can mean one
island or two political entities, Northern Ireland and the Republic of
Ireland, with half the people on Northern Ireland not wanting to be
called
Irish (and taking high offence in being called Irish) and half
'demanding'
it. The solution there is to call the political entities by their formal
name, and the geographic entity (the island) simply as Ireland. (And run
a
mile from a 'List of Irish people' - Calling Ian Paisley Irish and you'd
be
picking your teeth up from the ground. Call Gerry Adams 'British' and
you'd
be trying to find your kneecaps!)

The same is true in the UK. England is NOT the island it is on. Using
England to mean everyone on the island on Great Britain 'english' is
liable
to get you a punch in the face from people in Scotland and Wales, who
will
tell you 'we are bloody well not English and how dare you suggest it!'
Just
because a lot of people thousands of miles might call everyone from that
island 'English' would be NO EXCUSE for us doing it. Ditto with America.
Call the geographic entity 'America' but those who could from the
various
counties/states by the political entity, US, Canada, Mexico.

It may seem pedantic but this is a SERIOUS sourcebook here, not a game
where
we adopt the attitude 'ah shucks, who cares?' Canadians aren't going to
take
a sourcebook seriously that acts as though they don't exist and usupts
the
name of the continent they share for 'one' bit of the continent' just as
Scottish people will treat as rubbish a sourcebook that calls everyone
on
the island of Great Britain as english, Norwegians would hit the roof if
we
presumed that everyone in Scandanavia was Swedish, and the Portuguese
would
practically declare war (without even having a George Bush!) if we
called
everyone on Iberia Spanish.  (And anyone who talks about Ireland as
being
part of the British Isles - or worse still calls us 'British', which
still
happens, would be told in no uncertain manner to 'fuck off, you ignorant
wanker!')

So be VERY VERY careful with terminology, if you want Wikipedia to be
taken
seriously out there.

JT.