"Steve Bennett" wrote
Widely is not the same thing as seriously. Spam (the
meat) sells well.
Does anyone take it seriously?
WP is quoted by top-quality media sources. That's being taken seriously.
It absolutely
will not do that. For several reasons.
(i) Once you start on a list of things that might offend someone, you
never
end, as this thread will no doubt demonstrate.
This is one of those arguments I really dislike. "If we try and
improve things, people will want us to improve them even more, and it
will never end!"
Well, you are leaping to the conclusion that a subtraction (to appease some
group offended) is an improvement.
Look at it the other way. Don't label a page kid
safe. Label it *not
kid-safe*. Then if someone edits the pornographic article to remove
all the porn, then no harm is done. We shouldn't (can't, really) make
any guarantees that no kids will be shocked, but hopefully in time,
people can draw their own conclusions about the level of risk.
More assumptions. I think parents are more likely to be 'shocked' than
kids; especially those naive about what one can google for.
At the
moment, the risk is high, because a user can easily stumble on
[[autofellatio]] or whatever.
Not that high, clicking Random Page. High enough, if you look in the
sexological categories.
If all those pages are tagged correctly,
then the only risk is that someone sticks tubgirl on [[GWB]] for 2
minutes - a substantially lower risk.
'Only risk'; I think you forget how many sites WP links to. I think you
forget that interwiki links may (within Wikipedia) take one to pages not
subject to any scrutiny by us, the English Wikipedia.
We absolutely
cannot take on ourselves parental/teacher style
responsibility
for the content of a live wiki. Or of all outgoing links. No way can
one
give 'protection of minors' warranties. I don't see this is going to
change. We have this in common with the rest of the Web.
You're right. No warranties. But warnings, and the option to "opt out"
with suitable software. Just like with every other site of which "a
fairly large portion is pornographic". :)
A fairly small proportion of WP is 'explicit', and little is pornographic.