When Wikis Go Bad!
conservapedia.com (I'm not linking to it and thereby improving the page ranking of a shower of neanderthal bigots) is the latest Wiki to the hit the 'net, trailing in the wake of the mighty Wikipedia.
Acting as a self-proclaimed alternative to Wikipedia's dangerous liberalism (for which read, more often than not intelligent analysis), the front page of redneckpedia proclaims itself to be
Apparently, even in the face of the special relationship and Blair's willingness to be 'Yo'ed by Bush at the drop of a Stetson, the most obvious sign of dangerous atheism and rampant anti-Americanism is spelling English words in the way they are spelled by...the English.
Acting as a self-proclaimed alternative to Wikipedia's dangerous liberalism (for which read, more often than not intelligent analysis), the front page of redneckpedia proclaims itself to be
"a much-needed alternative to Wikipedia, which is increasingly anti-Christian and anti-American"and provides as evidence such terrible matters as the fact that
Wikipedia often uses foreign spelling of words, even though most English speaking users are American. Look up "Most Favored Nation" on Wikipedia and it automatically converts the spelling to the British spelling "Most Favoured Nation", even there there are far more American than British users. Look up "Division of labor" on Wikipedia and it automatically converts to the British spelling "Division of labour," then insists on the British spelling for "specialization" also.Interesting that.
Apparently, even in the face of the special relationship and Blair's willingness to be 'Yo'ed by Bush at the drop of a Stetson, the most obvious sign of dangerous atheism and rampant anti-Americanism is spelling English words in the way they are spelled by...the English.
Labels: internet
5 Comments:
Orthography is often a point of national, religious or ethnic pride, sometimes to the point of fetishization. At a conversational level Hindi and Urdu are the same language, but they are written with different systems. Swedish, Danish and Norwegian are all mutually intelligible, but they each have their own spelling systems. The standard American spellings of labor and favor are one way some Americans like to set themselves apart from other English-speaking countries.
The entry on Greek is very informative: "Greek is also a style of wrestling, and of love."
I do like the sneaky way they try and cover up the fact that saying 'Wikipedia spells English in the Enlgish manner' sounds stupid by saying 'Wikipedia spells English in the British manner'!
Which is true, though, unless you are making a point about the spelling abilities of the Welsh, Scots and Northern Irish.
Every time I hear about a new Wiki I just roll my eyes and wait for the whole craze to pass, as I'm sure it will. In ten years 'remember Wikipedia?' will sound the same as 'remember Geocities?'
SK: "Every time I hear about a new Wiki I just roll my eyes and wait for the whole craze to pass, as I'm sure it will. In ten years 'remember Wikipedia?' will sound the same as 'remember Geocities?'"
Hmm, don't know about that - Wikipedia (as opposed to wikis themselves) is already far bigger and has far more non-geek penetration than Geocities ever had.
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