On 1/4/06, Stan Shebs <shebs(a)apple.com> wrote:
The irony is that with so many boxes, some people are
going to
discover that they're the only Wikipedian to hold a certain
belief, which is likely to be more humiliating than anything else.
I expect the fad will crest at about that point - who wants to
advertise that they're unpopular?
Well this may apply to unpopular beliefs, but there's still the
question of the <insert any popular belief here>.
The three cases I've found happen to involve Roman Catholic
anti-abortionists, but I have no read to believe that this is the only
large and popular grouping in which these userboxes happen to be
abused. I just happen to have noticed these cases. I have no reason
to believe that this kind of abuse will lessen with time--indeed if
it's not strongly opposed it's very likely to grow to become a
customary form of abuse. We don't need this.
I can also see belief-haters adding themselves directly to a
category, quietly bypassing userbox, as a way to monitor the
category members.
Sure, there are defensive strategies. But the defensive strategies
are all aimed at making the userboxes (insofar as they're purported to
have some kind of use) unusable. Why risk having them in the first
place if they'll only lead to an arms race?