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Very recently, it seems History.SE has blacklisted using CJK Unified Ideographs. That is, no Chinese, Japanese, or Korean characters. I noticed this as I tried to cite a Japanese source to answer a question, and it wouldn't let me citing illegal characters.

I think I am just about the only one who makes use of these characters, and given the small currency of , and the impact is definitely not big either way. However, what does the rest of the community think?

Do we think this blacklisting is desirable? What are the upsides and downsides?

Update: the ban has been removed for H.SE!

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  • So what's the current situation? Does someone here have the authority to turn it off? Have they?
    – Ne Mo
    Aug 14, 2015 at 10:44
  • @NeMo I think the moderators might have to ask a community manager.
    – Semaphore
    Aug 14, 2015 at 12:01

2 Answers 2

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Is it beneficial? No, it's bloody stupid, and aggravates the non-Anglophone question drought I've been complaining of.

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It does look like there's a meta.stackexchange question about this already. The accepted answer there says it was done to most non-language stacks to combat a wave of East Asian spam. A mod comment later affirms this, and implies it might be turned off later if the wave passes.

One of the answers there does provide a work-around. It looks a bit painful to me, but I don't usually generate these characters, so I don't know how painful it is normally.

If the stated rationale there is correct, I'm not sure it doesn't do more harm than good here. I've processed a lot of flags the last couple of years, and don't remember a single one that I would have been saved if only we didn't allow non-Latin1 characters. Perhaps it might be a good idea to ask to turn it off, at least until such time as East Asian spam starts causing us trouble?

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  • I've seen the workaround, and it makes citing sources or listing terms in those languages completely not worth the trouble. Unless someone can come up with a credible reason to keep it, I think it would be best to have it turned off.
    – Semaphore
    Aug 13, 2015 at 9:26
  • @T.E.D, has this been turned off? You are a moderator, are you able to do that?
    – Ne Mo
    Aug 15, 2015 at 23:12
  • I can't. I suspect we'll have to get hold of a SE employee mod and beg them to do it. Hanging out in our chat channel during California business hours would probably be the best shot to get hold of one. Unfortunately, my work frowns on such things.
    – T.E.D. Mod
    Aug 16, 2015 at 1:38
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    @NeMo I've made the request, and this has now been turned off for H.SE :)
    – Semaphore
    Aug 16, 2015 at 15:40

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