According to our article [[Facepalm]], this is a startrek internet meme
indicating "an expression of embarrassment, frustration, disbelief, disgust,
shame or general woe. It often expresses mockery or disbelief of perceived
idiocy."
Well, that must be right.
Given that, I am wondering why we tolerate a template {{facepalm}}
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Facepalm
This does nothing to foster civil discourse among Wikipedians. I've just
looked through how it is being used, and whilst I do see the occasional use
in self-deprecation, generally it is used as a shorthand put-down:
implicitly calling your correspondent an idiot, and his latest contribution
self-evidently moronic.
Granted, removing uncivil templates won't magically increase patient and
constructive discussion, but I do suspect we'd still nevertheless delete
{{jackass}} or {{moron}}. If people are going to mock others, we shouldn't
be giving them shortcuts to do so. The existence of the template serves to
legitimise such dismissive discourse.
Thoughts?
Scott