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

[Margot]

On Sun, 03 Oct 2010 15:38:05 -0400
Marc Paré <marc at marcpare.com> wrote:

> Le 2010-10-03 15:12, Patricia Fraser a écrit :
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> > Hash: SHA1
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> > We've been (a few of us) hanging out in #mageia-uk, and the
> > name of the channel has annoyed some folks from the Ukraine,
> > who wanted that name. So, we have a nother (unofficial) channel
> > now, called #mageia-gb. However, when we looked at the ISO
> > country codes, we discover that Ukraine would actually be UA,
> > and SE is Sweden, not the Sammi language, as some thought.
> >
> > SO, what we need to know is: are we going by geography
> > (two-letter country codes as per the ISO list here:
> > http://www.iso.org/iso/english_country_names_and_code_elements).
> > or by language (such as en-gb)?
> >
> > If we could nail this down right away, it would save much grief
> > later.
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > - --
> > Patricia Fraser
> 
> My opinion is that we should try to follow ISO convention where
> it is applicable. Therefore the IRC'S would be:
> 
> #mageia-gb for United Kingdom
> #mageia-ua for Ukraine
> 
> The same should be applied for dates. We should also follow the
> date format as set out by the ISO.
> 
> Let's follow standards where they are established.
> 
> Marc
> 

Using gb for the United Kingdom would possibly be politically
dangerous, which is why UK websites are .co.uk .org.uk etc and
not .co.gb .org.gb etc.

The full name of our country is the "United Kingdom of Great Britain
& Northern Ireland" - using the GB code is offensive to people from
Northern Ireland, because Northern Ireland is a valued part of the
United Kingdom but is NOT part of Great Britain.

As IRC is an internet service, I suggest we stay with UK for the
United Kingdom (to match our websites) and Ukraine should be UA.

-- 
Margot
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
**Otford Ducks Computers**
We teach, you learn...
...and, if you don't do your homework, we set the cat on you!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~