> Hi there, I have seen a big problem in getting people to contribute in > kosovo to wikipedia > except the Kosovo article, there they dont call in *Kosovo and > Metohija*i, > so I think there is a president for the english and albanian names in > wikipedia. > most of the names are in serbian, with strange characters that I cannot > even > type. > this offends most contributors and prevents locals from contributing. > also the serbs erase all albanian names from the referring links so I > cannot > even find what I am looking for. > I would like to start to rename the articles to the albanian english > spellings with normal typiable characters. Ideally we would use the > albanian > names and encourage the locals to edit. Right now there is a minority > serb > group that is making life unpleasant for the local contributors. > see > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gjeravica > > can someone guide me on this. > thanks, > mike > > -- > James Michael DuPont > Member of Free Libre Open Source Software Kosova and Albania flossk.org > flossal.org
My advice is to take it easy. We have had this dispute in other areas of the world, notably in the case of place names in Poland, most of which was under German control at some point and has a German name for nearly every possible location. Gdansk, Danzig, was a particular problem. I don't remember exactly how that was resolved, but I do remember all the fireworks. Start by creating redirects from all Albanian names to the existing articles if they are in Serbian, and vice-versa. Here's a tip, even if you can't type something, you can always copy and paste it, for example: Đeravica (Albanian: Gjeravica; Serbian Cyrillic: Ђеравица). I don't know that a redirect from Ђеравица would be necessary. That way every one can find their way around. I see an unsigned note on the talk page of Đeravica: Main reason to change, authors Listen, let me present you with the biggest reason to change the name, the local people are offended with the serbian names. They live there, and they feel that wikipedia is biased to serbia. This is a major reason not to contribute to wikipedia. It has been a big problem all the time. The few vocal serbs who are pushing to keep the old name dont even live there and cannot contribute much. the people who do live there and can write are being excluded. 12:45, 9 November 2010 (UTC) This is a familiar story to me, a lot of new people have moved to where I live and find even the name of a prominent mountain "offensive", see http://www.14ers.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=27964 I, of course, find them offensive. That said, Wikipedia, while a bit safer than armed combat, is not a battleground and there is little patience for edit warring. As far as prejudice, I'm pretty sure some Serbians feel Wikipedia is biased against them, and there may be a little truth in that. They have a poor public image. Wikipedia administrators will not put up with sustained ethnically-based edit warring. However, any one place will have one name under our conventions. How to decide? My intuitive idea is to tolerate Serbian names for places that figure prominently in Serbian history, for example the names of Serbian monasteries, palaces, forts, or battlefields, but use Albanian for place names that now are predominately Albanian. There is no Kosovo section at Wikipedia:Naming conventions (geographic names) but that is where to set some guidelines after discussion with involved editors. In the case of Poland the discussion was extensive and guidelines are at Wikipedia:Manual of Style (Poland-related articles) That is the sort of resolution to work towards. So, talk, as you are, on talk pages; be patient; realize the other side also feels put upon and ask for help when you hit rough spots. Imposing a rule from above would be paternalistic and oppressive and it would be good if it could be avoided. Fred Bauder _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
