See those user names in this node? They all come from different places, different views. Everything2 takes all of those thoughts and allow anyone to barge into this node page and discover for herself that for every single thought in her mind, there's multiple truth right outside of her noggins. More than one belief in what the truth is. More than one perspective and understanding of what reality looks like.
I fully expect more people to come in and contribute even more diverse ideas that will knock me off my socks. Ideas that we never expect to apply to the node topic. Ideas we miss. Ideas that enriches and *gasp* changes us for the better too. Like a devotee who embrace the lovely world around her, we are alive and respect the learning process.
That's what Everything2 is here for, if you see American culture in little chocolate nuggets left and right, that doesn't mean Bill Clinton made Everything2 America, it's just a bunch of people noding. When you node, a little piece of England or China or Israel becomes Everything2's wacky culture too.
I think it's true that most good Everthing2nians write only what they know, and a few drops more. And if Everything2nians are from North America, there's not much we can do to make Everything2 nodes be about anywhere else. If the references to American culture are minor, I hope there's no serious impedance mismatch to hurt your comprehension. Most English speakers will be able to relate capably.
However, if one simply dislike America, the mere sight of roman type will offend, French or American, and no one can help a person with a different shade of beliefs. I've met people who feels this way about America. And both of us are online and enjoys the Internet immensely. She simply surfs non-American websites. We both feel a part of this global living stream of cheerful exchange.
You don't have to feel strongly about something to feel significant amount of discomfort either. One doesn't even have to dislike all of America, just a few things will shape the radius and sensitivity of his or her comfort zone. We can't hold it against anyone for who they are and what they believe in, people are people--not computers. But one could see that no amount of change to the Everything2 site can be a difference to Every Single issues and preferences all at once. Of course, look around the site, it appears the Everything2 inventors are trying! :-)
I bet Everything2 will welcome a planned approach towards non-English submissions Undoubtly this change will requires modification to the labeling templates of the web scripts. The scripts constitute the hand-crafted cyber-directives and intelligence of the Everything2 realm. This initiative to integrate more noders from diverse cultures into the programming and nodes collective is call Internationalization. Once localization work begins, the speakers of the most widely used languages will have an opportunity to submit nodes that matters in their world.
The Everything2 inventors may recruite translators, programmers, demo providers and people with experience regarding such culture-related enhancement. We could use this node and later--subnodes to discuss the issues. If you put your thoughts here, not only will it be a reference to the original Everything2 crew, it will be a great source of information for those working on independent Everything2-based sites. Everyone gets to learn!
Please volunteer if you find yourself free one weekend and you can speak, write, and even translate both English and a second language reasonably well. You can also spend your time doing someone who can help a favor in exchange for his or her service. Rough translations are as valuable as good translations, users are quick to point out improvements, so things just need to get rolling.
In my humble goofy anti-Everything2-guideline and wrong opinion, future technologies that will help get rid of US-Centricness on Everything (and bigger problems) include inventions like:
:-D