[WikiEN-l] Don't remove a WP:OFFICE tag put there by Danny

[Daniel R. Tobias]

On 10 Mar 2006 at 20:25, "David Gerard" <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:

> Else you may be blocked or temporarily desysopped. These tags are
> bloody serious, the WP:OFFICE rule is only used in case of actual
> problems, and the Foundation handles them as expeditiously as they
> possibly can. I expect everyone will piss and moan, but removing a
> WP:OFFICE tag is a really really dickish thing to do. So please don't.

Not that I have any intention of doing such a thing... but I still 
have some concerns about the whole WP:OFFICE business. Sure, I 
realize the necessity for something like that; as long as Wikipedia 
and its parent foundation exist as real-world entities rather than 
just disembodied Internet phenomena, there will be people in charge 
who have bills to pay, legalities to comply with, servers to keep 
running, and so on... and, hence, concerns for which their butts are 
on the line in a manner not shared by the typical geek just editing 
Wikipedia for the fun of it.  Nevertheless, in a site which prides 
itself on openness and rule by community consensus, having actions 
take place unilaterally and secretively goes against the grain, and 
should be kept to an absolute minimum.

There's kind of a feel that, if an article happens to offend the 
"wrong" people (who have some kind of political, financial, or legal 
leverage to use against Wikipedia/Wikimedia?), the Wikipedia Secret 
Police can just make it disappear, and community consensus (and all 
the Wikipedia pillars) be damned.

We already know that the community is secondary to the goal of 
producing an excellent encyclopedia.  But is that, in turn, secondary 
to some secret corporate agenda held by the Foundation Office?  
Blanking articles into sub-stubs and protecting them doesn't seem 
conducive to producing an excellent encyclopedia, and doing this 
without explanation is not conducive to the community.

-- 
== Dan ==
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