policy wrt politics (was RE: be-tarask language subtag registration form)

[Peter Constable]

GerardM wrote:

> I would urge restraint and have someone who is knowledgeable about this whole issue report on this before you would accept any code.

Perhaps this is a good opportunity to raise a policy question for this list: I think we'd agree that we don't want this list to be involved in political issues or be a forum for political debate. So, what's the best policy for this list when we get requests for subtags that have associated political issues?


a)      Reject any request with political issues to ensure this list avoids politics?

b)      Evaluate any request solely on non-political criteria? (We would still need to ensure that subtags are non-offensive.)

c)       Try to judge on a case-by-case basis what is the best way to walk through the political minefield?

Option (a) would mean we reject a request such as be-tarask, per policy, as soon as it becomes clear that there are political issues around the distinction being made.

Option (b) would mean that for a request such as be-tarask we simply evaluate whether the proposed distinction can be useful for some user community (regardless of their politics), is dividing at a reasonable point (e.g., is 1933 the threshold date, or 1959, or are there two separate divisions?), and that the form of the proposed subtag isn't offensive to any community (e.g. "narkamauka" would not be acceptable as the basis for the form of a subtag). I think it would mean we specifically do *not* do what Gerard may be suggesting for the be-tarask case (his intent isn't entirely clear to me): get input on the political issues.

Maybe there's some other option I haven't considered.



Peter
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