The WMF has been recently backing softwares that are a breach of "Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not" (1). Recently a totally stupid pink heart was added to user talk pages, making people believe it is Valentine Day everyday, with the result that Wikipedia is now being used as a social network or a game. For example see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Alleahruiz .
This sort of software enhances shallow relationships between people. That might be fine for American people or americanized people but everybody in the world is not American or Americanized or belonging to a culture close to that one. I believe that in this world some people value something else than shallow relationships based on US-centered cultural codes such as a pink heart, for example trusting relationships based on working together in the long term, using true words really felt rather than just picking an icon on a game interface. Do you know that the pink heart tool was imposed on Wikimedia COmmons by the English speaking community without consulting other language communities ? Now we are seeing the appearance of a feedback tool on the English Wikipedia ? How long are the non-English Wikipedias going to be free from this new stupid tool which has nothing to do with writing an encyclopaedia ? Where is the usability when adding new features at a confusing hurried rythm ? (1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:NOT#Wikipedia_is_not_a_blog.2C_webspace_provider.2C_social_network.2C_or_memorial_site _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l