User:Zyxoas/Talk:Dave

Hello. Is anybody out there?. Zyxoas (talk to me - I'll listen) 22:13, 12 April 2006 (UTC) Dave, end each of your comments with a new section header on a new line (== stuff ==). I should have put this under my talk page so I would have a "+" button... I am now officially an idiot. Grade A SABS certified...

stuff
Ok, Hi Zyxoas. So you'd prefer to do this here, on this very page? That's fine by me.

Basically, I'm looking for some quotes to adorn the article, so I'd like you to agree that anything you put I can use as a quote, so bear that in mind when composing replies. I've contacted quite a few wikipedians involved in this, so I might not end up using all of what we discuss, but it's all good background for me regardless. I hope you don't mind giving me some personal details (only insofar as they're relevant to the topic), but I don't need your real name for the article, just your wikipedia username. Hope that's ok.

So, what's you're nationality, age and current location? What languages do you speak?

What is wikipedia's systemic bias?

Can you say in your own words why you were attracted to the idea of countering this bias? - why do you think it's important?

What are you currently working on in Wikipedia in this context?

Thanks for taking the time.

David

86.133.23.227 10:10, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Me
Hi! I'm Tebello Thejane. I live in a regressive townlet called Meyerton in South Africa's Gauteng province. I'm 21 years, 7 months, 7 days old today (yippee!). My home language is Sesotho but like many South Africans my age my English is more advanced than my 1st lang (due to our "Model C" education). I can also speak other RSA langs reasonably (Setswana, isiZulu, isiXhosa). I'm terrible @ Afrikaans although it was taught in school.

Clicketh hither: WP:BIAS
WP's BIAS is so simple that a child can understand it, but in case you don't have one lying around... In order to edit Wikipedia you need the Internet. For various reasons certain groups have more limited internet access than others. Since Wikipedia grows through public contributions this means that their knowledge, perspectives, experiences are almost invariably severely underrepresented and misrepresented. Simple, but very unfortunate.

Countering BIAS
I am African, and unlike almost all African editors I speak African languages. I'm also self-taught in comparative Bantu language linguistic topics. The WP articles on Africans & their langs are only marginally better than those of the Uncyclopedia Britanica. They are mostly little more than stubs and regurgitate "old" colonialist divide-and-conquer theories. Almost all the articles are written by people who try their best to write articles on topics they know 0 about.

Where I come in
Sesotho is a language spoken by some 4 million people in 2 countries. When I found the article some 2.5 years ago it was a 2 paragraph stub. I thought "hey! That sucks!" and I dumped a whole bunch of linguistic info there. Now the article is worth reading (but admittedly rather Scientific, and still not perfect). Most African lang articles which do exist are little more than stubs. The editors simply don't know what to do with them! I know a little, and I'm willing to help.

My activities
Here's the insane part: I'm writing this text on my cellphone. I point my 3G phone to http://www.google.com/xhtml and it translates the WWW and allows me to make some edits to WP. I then ask other editors (ie poor User:JackyR) to carry out tasks which I can't do. I'm limited to 512 chars per post so I can't edit articles. So I'm currently countering BIAS by being an underresourced advisor. Of course it only works if people bother to ask me and listen to me...

The problem
Personally it's Hellkom's hyperbolical pricing and monopoly. Say I opt for a basic ADSL package from the MWEB ISP, I would end up paying more for the Telkom digital line rental than for the actual MWEB service itself. All this for a measly 1GB cap. So I won't be getting ADSL anytime soon... Obviously I can't possibly continue to use my cellphone since it's pathetic and a danger to my mental health, so I'll see...

So
There you are then. More than 2 hours worth of toil (perhaps I don't have much mental health, anyway). If there's anything more you'd like to know then don't be afraid to ask here - all the typing is great thumb exercise. Could you perhaps due 1 little favour for me? Know anyone who's dying to give away a Gmail invite? You have my e-mail address, right (try checking your spam folder...)? Could you ask them to e-mail it to me? That would make my life so much easier... Zyxoas (talk to me - I'll listen) 21:02, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

OK...
Wow, thanks for making that effort Zyxoas. I'll definitely try to include some of your comments in my article. I'll let you know when it's up (could be a few weeks). In the meantime, I'll keep my ear to the ground about anyone giving away a gmail invite. Impressed with your efforts on wikipedia, in the light of your current internet situation!

Well done and thanks v. much.

Btw I did linguistics at SOAS, though not African languages unfortunately. I'll check out your Sesotho page.

Kewl
Hey, you forgot to make a new section! Luckily your above section wasn't too big and I was able to edit it. Don't worry about the invite - I've already received one, but I now need to get to a PC to use it (Google won't let me establish a secure connection with WWW sites that need it). I hereby give you full permission to use everything that I've said for any purpose that you wish, verbose or reasonably edited - or is that unnecessary (this is Wikipedia, after all). Thanks for your time. Zyxoas (talk to me - I'll listen) 22:01, 15 April 2006 (UTC)