[voodoo]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

I can think of all sorts of reasons to expect it might not be the case. Aside from basic human needs (and even those sometimes), I would expect that different cultures often practice various pastimes in different proportions. For instance, I don't find it all that strange that French (American) football viewership isn't proportional to America's — they just don't play the sport very much. I figure that's the reason they're different cultures rather than the same culture.

True, but in your analogy one sport is replaced by another. Logically Wikipedia would be substituted by something similar then in countries with unusually low Wikipedia editing ratio..

There is no answer to that, I suppose.

Originally Posted by Turtle777

Oh the irony

-t

Yeah it is ironic that the prejudice you thought so little of hit home.

Turtles aren't very sharp animals.

V

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by voodoo 

I was hoping for more creative stuff than "just because" and "different cultures".

Well, we've had enough of your prejudicial "creative" explanations.

Originally Posted by voodoo 

What it says to me, personally, is that a very very low demographic in pretty much any given country edits Wikipedia. So low that a difference of dozen persons is clearly visible in the number of articles.

Aside from your use of "demographic" not making sense, this does not explain anything.

-t

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by voodoo 

Turtles aren't very sharp animals.

Beats you spaniards any given day !

-t

[voodoo]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

Well, we've had enough of your prejudicial "creative" explanations.

When you say 'we' I assume you're referring the voices. Why don't you be brave and say "I have"? Tsk tsk. My 'prejudice' hit your personality 100%. I say there's something to it.

Originally Posted by turtle777 

Aside from your use of "demographic" not making sense, this does not explain anything.
-t

Small, low, use your brain.. oh wait.. Turtles aren't the sharpest... already established, my bad.

As for the rest of your whining: you provide an explaination that works.

V

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by voodoo 

When you say 'we' I assume you're referring the voices. Why don't you be brave and say "I have"? Tsk tsk. My 'prejudice' hit your personality 100%. I say there's something to it.

Well, I'm sick of it too, so that makes more than one of us already.

As for the rest of your whining: you provide an explaination that works.

It's already been given to you - Wikipedia has become a cultural phenomenon in the United States. It has not become as culturally important elsewhere. The Russians and Japanese probably have their own ways to waste time that are just different from ours. I mean, look at this chart:



Is the US over half of the world's population? No. So apparently population alone isn't a good metric of how many people from a country will use Wikipedia. Heck, the ratio between the number of contributors from Germany and France to English-speaking countries on that chart is way lower than the ratio of German and French articles to English ones, meaning that probably some of those German and French articles could be being written by German and French speakers in the US, Canada, or the UK too. And the entire rest of the world is all smashed together in that one little wedge in the upper left. What does that tell me? Wikipedia isn't that big of a deal outside the English-speaking world.

The thing about Wikipedia is it has to have a lot of people using (and editing) it to be useful - but it also needs to be useful for people to want to use it. Since even the number of articles in the German version are quite small compared to the English, I'd guess that most people in other countries are just going elsewhere for their information, and that the foreign-language Wikipedias are being edited mainly by a small group of enthusiasts, not by the general population. To get a large userbase, it would need to hit a critical mass first, which it apparently hasn't yet.

Heck, nobody speaks Esperanto as their first language, but people are apparently writing articles in it, since Esperanto has more articles on Wikipedia than Danish, Hebrew, Korean, or Arabic.

[voodoo]

Originally Posted by CharlesS 

Well, I'm sick of it too, so that makes more than one of us already.

Ah but there it is. French bashing: ok, English bashing: ok, USA bashing: ok (many complain about this), Italy bashing: I'm gonna say ok on that one as well. It's in character for these forums.

If you're sick of it, too bad so sad.

Originally Posted by CharlesS 

Wikipedia has become a cultural phenomenon in the United States. It has not become as culturally important elsewhere. The Russians and Japanese probably have their own ways to waste time that are just different from ours. I mean, look at this chart:



Is the US over half of the world's population? No. So apparently population alone isn't a good metric of how many people from a country will use Wikipedia. Heck, the ratio between the number of contributors from Germany and France to English-speaking countries on that chart is way lower than the ratio of German and French articles to English ones, meaning that probably some of those German and French articles could be being written by German and French speakers in the US, Canada, or the UK too. And the entire rest of the world is all smashed together in that one little wedge in the upper left. What does that tell me? Wikipedia isn't that big of a deal outside the English-speaking world.

The thing about Wikipedia is it has to have a lot of people using (and editing) it to be useful - but it also needs to be useful for people to want to use it. Since even the number of articles in the German version are quite small compared to the English, I'd guess that most people in other countries are just going elsewhere for their information, and that the foreign-language Wikipedias are being edited mainly by a small group of enthusiasts, not by the general population. To get a large userbase, it would need to hit a critical mass first, which it apparently hasn't yet.

Heck, nobody speaks Esperanto as their first language, but people are apparently writing articles in it, since Esperanto has more articles on Wikipedia than Danish, Hebrew, Korean, or Arabic.

Well argued and it is similar to the conclusion I made myself. Why wasn't this your first post on this topic and not your last? I'm sure it would have saved you a lot of energy, looking back.

Grrr bad prejudice!

Well, the world is full of it and ignoring it or being angry with it isn't going to make it go away.

Thanks for the post!

V

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by voodoo 

Ah but there it is. French bashing: ok, English bashing: ok, USA bashing: ok (many complain about this), Italy bashing: I'm gonna say ok on that one as well. It's in character for these forums.

If you're sick of it, too bad so sad.

What the hell? When did I ever bash the French, the English, or anyone else?

Well argued and it is similar to the conclusion I made myself. Why wasn't this your first post on this topic and not your last? I'm sure it would have saved you a lot of energy, looking back.

You specifically said in your last post that "different cultures" wasn't an answer you'd accept. Yet that's exactly what my post said, and what you're apparently agreeing with now............

[voodoo]

Originally Posted by CharlesS 

What the hell? When did I ever bash the French, the English, or anyone else?

I never said *you* bashed any particular nation. French bashing is on par for this forum and so is USA bashing and so is English bashing. But I already said that. The only thing I didn't say is that you did it.

However, this is a community and while I am sure you are equally outraged at any bashing (oh so sure), it is not uncommon to say the least.

Originally Posted by CharlesS 

You specifically said in your last post that "different cultures" wasn't an answer you'd accept. Yet that's exactly what my post said, and what you're apparently agreeing with now............

Not exactly. You indicated that some nations outside the Anglosphere were not culturally inclined to use/edit Wikipedia and I wasn't buying it.

However when the explaination is that outside the Angloshpere Wikipedia is largely irrelevant, that sounds way more likely to me and explains these strange discrepancies between the non-English languages. i.e. not just for some nations outside the Anglosphere, but all nations outside it.

There is a subtle difference, but at least in my mind it is clear.

V

[turtle777]

Voodoo, you are a farkin TROLL !

-t

[red rocket]

The ‘troll’ charge is so heavily overused on many forums, I really hope that shıt doesn't happen here.

Anyway, I don't quite get what the fuss is about. Some people don't like Wikipedia for political reasons, some don't like it because you cannot edit articles through TOR, some because they don't speak the language and their localised version stinks, some may object to the fact that it's called ‘Wikipedia’ and not ‘Wikipaedia’ or ‘Wikipædia’, all sorts of reasons. You don't think it has enough articles in or about your lingo or country, go fụcking write some, then.

I mean, really.

Apparently in Japan, 2chan is this ultra important trend barometer that all the politicians and journalists take really seriously, does this mean that 4chan or 7chan users are getting upset about being irrelevant? Do you get constant whinging on k5 about how they're not as huge as Slashdot?

No.

If someone doesn't contribute to Wikipedia, I assume they have something better to do with their time.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by red rocket 

The ‘troll’ charge is so heavily overused on many forums, I really hope that shıt doesn't happen here.

I don't think it's overused here. You have to earn it, and voodoo definitely has.

Originally Posted by red rocket 

Anyway, I don't quite get what the fuss is about.

Well, I don't know if you are new to 'NN, but voodoo is known for his not to carfully crafted sweeping statements.

THAT's the main point of contention here.

-t

[red rocket]

Is it? I've got the guy on ‘ignore’ anyway, just trying to respond to what I assumed the actual bone of contention was here, i.e. perceived cultural bias on Wankipedia. Oh, well, never mind, if this is actually a ‘let's egg on voodoo’ thread, I'm not that interested, I guess.

[PER3]

What about considering content? Maybe the Russian Wikipedia is more serious about knowledge, and not filled with TaTu trivia and teenager home pages. What is the "knowledge profile" of those millions of English-language pages?

Any ideas?

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie 

E
Nope, you were offending the Italians, belittling the Poles, attesting that the `Japanese have quite an education' and laughing at the Germans for not having had colonies (to speak of). So it seems that I can count (one, several). And has nothing to do with being overly politically correct. Nor with the lack of humor we Teutons have (it seems it's genetic).

So please stop with your stereotypical drivel.

He also said before elsewhere..

Originally Posted by voodoo 

Hoho, yes,l don't get me started on Italy. Now there is a land of **********s. The Roman Empire could never have been had the Romans been Italians. ****ing pissant, dishonorable cocksucking, mother****ing, retard raping, self absorbed pieces of ****. And that's the nicest things I can say about Italians.

Nah, real experience. I have met so many Germans, Italians and Swedes through my travels and as tourists in my country. I have lived among them and I have known them. This isn't prejudice, this is just the way they are. ********s.

French Canadians too. Don't know about the rest of them Canadians, I haven't had the pleasure.

Norwegians, Portuguese, Spaniards, French, Polish, Dutch, Belgians, Irish, Greeks the Baltics and Brits (excepting the drunk coke-using white trash) are all good people.

The Danish and the Swiss are not exactly bad people, just dumb. And very confused.

Peh, take a wild guess mr. self-rightous, politically correct, yet self-serving German...

So him acting as he he isn't ripe with racism.. is well... silly.

[Railroader]

I am amazed voodoo has never been banned here.

Amazed am I.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by Railroader 

I am amazed voodoo has never been banned here.

Who claimed that? I assure you he has been banned before. Just clearly not enough time.

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by Kevin 

Who claimed that? I assure you he has been banned before. Just clearly not enough time.

I did.

I didn't know he was banned ever before. I stand corrected!

[Kevin]

Oh he wont admit it though. I thought you had asked him or something.

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by Kevin 

Oh he wont admit it though. I thought you had asked him or something.

I did ask him once, and he denied ever being banned.

[Kevin]

He lied. I had a mod confirm it once.

Anyhow, I think Wikipedia is mostly English for the same reason IRC is mostly English. The point of these things is to communicate. English has pretty much become the standard language of the internet. Well broken English anyhow. Why? In order for everyone to communicate one language has to be spoken. And since English is the language people know more than any other, it is used.

[voodoo]

Originally Posted by Kevin 

He lied. I had a mod confirm it once.

You reap what you sow, isn't that what you believe Kevin? Hypocrite.

Any moderator or administrator is welcome to post in this thread and confirm that never has the word 'banned', baninated' or any form or indication of banning been next to my user name. I have never been banned from MacNN.

Personal attacks are against the forum rules Kevin. You should know because YOU have been banned. On numerous occations.

V

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by voodoo 

You reap what you sow, isn't that what you believe Kevin? Hypocrite.

This is the kind of inconsistent modding I am talking about. Kevin gets banned for a single poop joke, besson makes thousands. Other people get banned for a single insult, voodoo dishes them out in the majority of his posts. Do a search on voodoo's posts. Click on "Find more posts by voodoo" when you click on his username. you'll see lots of vile insulting and harassing posts.

Originally Posted by voodoo 

Any moderator or administrator is welcome to post in this thread and confirm that never has the word 'banned', baninated' or any form or indication of banning been next to my user name. I have never been banned from MacNN.

ORLY?!?
What did you mean when you said this then?

Originally Posted by voodoo

(I had almost forgotten about it, but I was banned from the P/L for teasing Zimphire here when he was being stupid. this happened a lot)

Originally Posted by voodoo 

Personal attacks are against the forum rules Kevin. You should know because YOU have been banned. On numerous occations.

Sorry, but Kevin is not guilty of a personal attack here. He is posting factual information. You are being caught in a lie and are the one doing the attacking here.

And to post on topic a bit....

Why are you here typing in English? Why aren't you using an Spanish speaking forum about Apple Computers? Perhaps you should try to find some data about how much of internet content is in English vs. other languages.

[Chuckit]

For the record, this entire is friggin' brain damage. But also for the record, getting locked out of one forum is not the same thing as getting banned from MacNN.

[ThinkInsane]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

For the record, this entire is friggin' brain damage.

A fitting quote to end this thread.