[Mageia-discuss] IRC community channels - need a ruling from the board

Tue Oct 5 23:11:07 CEST 2010

On Tuesday 05 October 2010 03:36:42 Hoyt Duff wrote:
+> As a US Enlgish speaker, I also wrote for the UK-based 
+> Linux Format magazine. There are differences in US and UK English, but
+> none so severe that meaning is lost. Many idioms are shared or at
+> least understandable.
+With you so far
+>
+> I appreciate the efforts of non-native English speakers to converse in
+> English, and even in those instances where they are speaking only a
+> bare approximation of English, I am still able to understand them.
+I will forego the temptation here to make a joke at your expense:-)
+>
+> I see no need for a GB-only enclave and believe it would only serve to
+> isolate them from the larger community. OTOH, where a Linux-oriented
+> community exists where many do not speake English in any manner, a
+> local-language forun serves to include them in the larger community
+> where the lingua-franca is English.
+I doubt if many non-native speakers of English (any variety) would be 
+sensitive to the nuances of meaning in "GB-only enclave". It could even be 
+that the phrase is completely neutral in US English. I hope so, because then 
+I can ignore the imagined barb. 
+
+But I think it is worth pointing out that there is a world of difference 
+between "GB English" and "en_GB". One of them can, if required, carry 
+political overtones; the other cannot. That is the one I am intersted in. 
+
+If the only consideration for the Mageia community is communication then I 
+will stand beside you and support everything you have said about the 
+usefulness of International English as a medium for sharing thoughts and 
+ideas about the distribution and its contents. But stop for a moment and 
+consider if this rationale can also be applied to the results of our 
+deliberations; the Mageia distribution and its applications.
+
+This is something much more personal as it affects our daily interaction with 
+our computers and programs. That is why we have en_US and en_GB, en_IE, en_AU 
+and all of the other variants. It is not just to accommodate date displays, 
+though that is important enough, nor just to handle measurement units. It 
+allows us to select the correct dictionaries to check spelling and provides a 
+framework in which to make our programs fit better with our cultuural 
+identities. 
+
+So do I think it is wrong to have a place to hang out with "people like me"? 
+Of course not. Where else would I go to sound out opinion or exchange views 
+on such culturally important computer developments as cricket scorecard data 
+capture and display programs?
+
+Richard
+
+
+