User:FriedMilk/treasure

On Naming Conventions
Frankly, at the moment I feel that this entire debate is completely absurd. I'm sorry if I offend you, but I'm completely frustrated by the ignorance displayed here (and also rather offended myself at being told that I'm using the English language incorrectly). Practically everyone supporting the change is basing their arguments on a faulty understanding of how language, and in particular the naming of places, works. The name of a city is a word in a language just as much as "chair" or "house". A government cannot just decide to change an English name for a place any more than it can change the word "chair" to "sedentary implement", because words in languages are defined not by governments but by the speakers of that language (a fact which the Académie française has singularly failed to realise, and which has made a mockery of its attempts to impose rules on French speakers). The Ukrainian government may well have changed the official name of Kiev, but it can't change the English word for Kiev, because it has no power over the English language or speakers of the English language.

Also, using the phrase "official English name" is misleading and incorrect, because it implies that there is even an "official English name" for any place. A city can have an "official name", of course, as defined by the powers controlling it, but it can't have an "official English name" because there is no authority over the English language by which such "official status" can derive. There can only ever be a "correct English name" for a place, and that is merely the name which most English speakers regard as correct (not necessarily "use", as most people know that the "correct name" of the US is "the United States of America" and not "America", even though it is often shortened to that for convenience. This is fundamentally different to this situation, since people aren't simply using "Kiev" or "Calcutta" as convenient shorthand for their local names.) Governments regularly demand that people start calling their cities or country by a different name, but their demands are no more than requests, sometimes ignored (like that of the Czech Republic to be called "Czechia"), sometimes taken on board by nearly everyone (like that of the PRC to call the former Peking "Beijing"), and sometimes taken on board by governments but ignored by everyone else (like most of the cities here, as well as the Ivory Coast). Only the second type should be reflected in an English language encyclopaedia, as it's the only type of situation where the language obeys the command of the foreign government. Recognition of a name-change by governments is no evidence for the actual change of the name of a place in a language, as the only evidence for that is if the speakers of that language actually start using a new name.

Then there's the fact that people seem to be implying not only that the "official" version of a name is completely correct for use in English, but that the normal English names are somehow "incorrect" or "wrong". This is just rude, insulting and arrogant. "Wikipedia should use correct names, even in cases where a former name is still commonly used due to force of habit or lack of better knowledge." I don't call Kiev "Kiev" because I'm used to calling it that or because I don't know that the Ukrainian government wants me to call it "Kyiv". I call it "Kiev" because that's the normal, correct, current English name for it, and I don't recognise the power of the Ukrainian government to order me to change the words I use. I'm no more incorrect in saying "Kiev" than I am in saying "Rome" or "Moscow", or than I am for calling Cheshire "Cheshire" when its official name is "The County Palatine of Chester".

Then of course we have the people who seem to understand exactly what this is all about and yet want to change it. "I feel that it also has something of a responsibility to help in promoting vocabulary change." An encyclopaedia is supposed to present an unbiased representation of the facts, not pursue some form of strange linguistic crusade culminating in every city and country in the world being pronounced the same everywhere, regardless of how absurd their name looks or sounds in foreign languages.

As I said, I apologise if that offended anyone, but I refuse to be arrogantly informed by people who aren't even native speakers of my language that I'm using it incorrectly and am obviously either a stick-in-the-mud or an ignoramus. As someone who studies linguistics, I feel that this peculiar linguistic political correctness that people seem to be advocating has no logical basis and is certainly not a sensible way of determining how we write English in an English language encyclopaedia. Proteus 15:19, 26 Apr 2004 (UTC)

We're not as "bad" as Everything2, though
From User: Shoehorn -

What's the deal with all the obscure math terms, articles about homosexuality, and essays on the importance of Ayn Rand on Wikipedia?

Wikipedia: For when Prozac isn't enough
Brett Lyon -

Your experiment highlights my long-held view of Wikipedia to the T. Since we can not reccommend citing Wikipedia as a reliable source on any level (from 1st grade to PhD), what then is its purpose ? I think that Wikipedia provides a therapeutic effect for the people who regularly add or edit content on it and not much else. There are various forms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder that produce this kind of behavior.

Wikipedia caters to 10 year olds and seniors alike
From Talk:Super Mario Brothers 3 -

Aside from being a "best selling game title of all time", this subject is not particularly substantial. Is this an encyclopedia for 10 year olds?

--

No, it's an encyclopedia for all ages. If this doesn't interest you, go look up stewed prunes or something.

-- Jordan

Wikipedia caters to Tolkien geeks and English majors alike
The whole of Talk:Mithril has an interesting discussion of fictional topics and notability.