Two policy propositions for the region list (was Re: Two policy propositions for the country list)

[Don Sanders]

On Wednesday 19 May 2004 01:52, Charles de Miramon wrote:
> Hello,
> After reading this long thread, I've spelled two policy
> propositions depending of the different opinions aired by
> everybody. Feel free to correct my text if I've made a mistake.
>
> Maybe we should move the thread to kde-policies.

I have some comments regarding the wording that are relevant if this 
proposition is to be accepted as official policy (and put on the web 
or posted in some public place). If it's not going to be posted 
anywhere public they don't really matter.

>
> I vote for B
>
> Cheers,
> Charles
>
> Position A :
> -------------
>
> Adding a list of countries and flags in KDE is a potential problem
> for several countries/regions subject to conflicting nationalistic
> claims (Tibet, Taïwan, Macedonia, Palestine, etc.). Whatever is the
> political position of the majority of KDE fellows on these
> different conflicts, the KDE project, as a whole, is technical and
> apolitical and don't want to take side in any of these conflicts.
> We will therefore not make our own list of country but use a list
> provided by an international body (ISO). We will also take away
> flags or at least the controversary ones. Another technical
> solution would be to have each user choose manually the different
> parameters associated with a country (language, currency, metric
> system, etc.)
>
> Position B :
> -----------
>
> The internationalisation of KDE is made by volunteers spread around
> the world. We believe that is the responsability of the German,
type s/responsability/responsibility

> British, Macedonian, Chinese, Taiwanese KDE fellows to decide how
> they want their country to be named in English and in their own

Please don't use 'country' it's a highly politically charged term, and 
it's exactly this kind of use that upsets a great number of people. 
Substituting 'region' for country would be much more apolitical.

> tongue, which flag to use, etc. In case of a conflict, it is the
> duty of the local i 18n team responsible to find a consensus on
> that matter. If the language spans over several countries, like

Again s/countries/regions for the same reason.

> Arabic, the i18n team responsible should find a consensus between
> the KDE fellows of each country. In case of a change that provokes

s/country/region again for the same reason.

> an internal conflict, the KDE project will revert the change to the
> precedent non-controversial situation. Conflicts aroused by people
> external to the project will not be answered.
> The KDE project stresses that the Free Software license of KDE
> makes it possible and easy for its distributors or any group or
> individual to modify and distribute a version of KDE with a country

s/country/region

> list tailored for their own commercial or political interests if
> they want.

A similar thing goes for proposal A. I would suggest just avoiding 
using the term country all together if possible and instead 
substitute region.

Thanks,
Don.