User:Shyland
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Hi! I'm a software engineer. I dabble in / read about all kinds of other stuff.
[edit] I have no opinion on which flavor of English to use....except this one.
As a newcomer, I made a few spelling/grammar "corrections" to an article; whereupon I was informed that I was in fact "Americanizing" it. So, I reverted it. I had no idea what a hot topic this was, especially since the article I edited was about a football (soccer) club in the U.K.!
These days, I'm aware of the differences between the British and American dialects of English, less likely to notice them, and not about to waste time Americanizing to make an article uniformly American dialect, nor requesting that someone else Britishize if it seems appropriate.
I would like to propose that the only sensible path is to de-segregate! Throw out the pointless guideline that articles should be uniform in their selection of American or British English. It is a source of eternal conflict because people are taking it and running with it; treating it as Bible (or Koran, or whatever.)
If Wikipedia as a whole is non-uniform from article to article, there isn't any real reason for requiring uniform dialect within an article. Doing so spawns endless discussions as to which dialect is appropriate. British soccer teams are one of the few cases where the choice is clear! Most other subjects are susceptible to editing & re-editing ad nauseam.
We as a community are spending prodigious amounts of time and energy in the tug-of-war to Americanize / Britishize articles. Many, many thousands of articles must have the same stuff on their discussion pages hashing over whether American or British is appropriate. The only way to put an end to it is to desegregate dialects.
I would heartily support a policy change as follows:
1) British and American English are both acceptable, even within the same article.
2) "Americanizing" or "Britishizing" is strongly discouraged.
BOTH sides should desist in trying to impose their own dialect upon the world.
