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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Odysses (talk | contribs) at 14:22, 3 March 2006 (→[[Portal:Macedonia]]: Strongly rename). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Portal:Macedonia

This portal (Portal:Macedonia) should be renamed to Portal:Republic of Macedonia. This country's name is subject to a naming dispute, which has reached the highest diplomatic level. The current name is too provocative, POV, misleading and potentially may be found offensive. Macedonia is a region in southeastern Europe (see Macedonia (region)) and is divided between four countries. The Republic of Macedonia has approximately 40% of this region, the rest being in Greece, Bulgaria and Albania. The current name is misleading as it could lead to the belief that the portal deals with the whole region rather than just the Republic. In fact, as one point, it seemed that the portal was about the wider region, before our Bulgarian colleague, User:FunkyFly noticed it and removed it (twice he had to, because it was reinserted in a modified form). The reason that this is such as sensitive issue is the suspicion, held mostly by the Greek government that the Republic of Macedonia has territorial ambitions beyond its own borders [1]. Whether this suspicion is unfounded or not, is IMO completely immaterial, but this portal, appropriating the name of a region, which spans four countries, for a country which accounts for 40% of the whole region is a blatant monopolisation of the name. When this portal was first created, it attracted the interest of some Bulgarian and Greek Wikipedians on the portal's talk page who are of the opinion that a portal which uses the name Portal:Macedonia should be for the whole region, not just for the Republic. Not to mention the fact that there are ambitions to start a portal on the legacy of the whole region in the near future. I think that the controversies surrounding this name (which have yet to be settled at diplomatic level) alone merit the renaming of the portal. It will not be the first time the full name for a portal has been used; there is, after all, a Portal:People's Republic of China and not a Portal:China (which is a redirect - Portal:Macedonia could be a redirect until a portal dealing with the whole region is made). --Latinus 12:33, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Because I created the portal, please see my reasons: The name of the portal follows the naming conventions used for portals on Wikipedia: almost every portal for a country uses country’s short name, as: portal:Spain, portal:Poland, portal:Bulgaria, portal:Romania, portal:Greece etc (not the country’s official name, for example, the official name of Greece is Hellenic Republic, but the portal is simply named with portal Greece, or Bulgaria, the official name of the country is Republic of Bulgaria, but the portal uses the short version of the name portal Bulgaria). The portals about China and Ireland are probably the only such examples, but the vast majority of portals are using the short common English version of the name. There is a naming dispute about the official name of the country, but that is already appropriately described in the article about the country: [2] and the dispute shouldn’t interfere with the name of the portal. The argument that a portal for the wider region can be created is great, but that portal can be named with portal:Macedonia (region), for example. Actually, there are only 5 geography portals about the regions and that regions are much wider than the Macedonia region: Africa, Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, Middle East and Oceania: Wikipedia:Portal. There are regions in Greece and Bulgaria that are called Aegean or Pirin Macedonia (for example Greece is divided on 13 regions and 3 of them are containing Macedonia in the name) and that can be described as they wish in the portals about that countries (Greece and Bulgaria), or a sub portals can be created for that regions as well (we have such examples on Wikipedia: United States (New York City, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin). As in every other WP article, there are problems and some editors made edits related to the region, but I and other Macedonian editors reverted them several times and I intend to do it in the future:[3], [4], [5], [6]

The bottom line is that a country has far more relevance that region and we cannot punish a country to have a portal with inappropriate name. In addition, please see my view on the naming conventions regarding the Macedonia articles at [7]. Bitola 13:14, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, Bitola. You have just described all the non-controversial cases - Macedonia is a controversial case. Look at another controversial case and how they resolved it: Portal:People's Republic of China, it's the full name! Are they being "punished" as well? Sometimes, the full name is needed due to a controversy. No one is disputing Poland's name, that's why we have a Portal:Poland etc. --Latinus 13:40, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Please Latinus, this is not the discussion page, we should stop that here! (Just to answer, there are two countries named China and maybe that is the reason, maybe Chinese people want to have such a portal name)
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