[WikiEN-l] Featured editors?

[Daniel R. Tobias]

On 10 Nov 2007 at 12:10:38 +0000, Guy Chapman aka JzG 
<guy.chapman at spamcop.net> wrote:

> So in this case, as with Jonathan Barber (JB196), if it genuinely is
> Awbrey then long experience shows that the banhammer is the right
> approach.  Revert, block, ignore.

When it comes to essays about preferable Wikipedia behavior in 
dealing with people who disagree, I like WP:BRD (Bold, revert, 
discuss) much better than WP:RBI... the ultimate aim of the former is 
to lead to a discussion, rather than to lead to banning and ostracism 
and the suppression of discussion.  Which of these mindsets is more 
in keeping with the spirit of a community devoted to the collection 
and dissemination of information?

While the trolls and vandals do some harm, a lot more harm is done to 
Wikipedia, in my opinion, by the Judge Dredd types who see themselves 
as the thin blue line against trolling, vandalism, and anarchy, and 
have no compunctions against acting as judge, jury, and executioner 
against anybody they see as an enemy, or as somebody aiding the 
enemy.

Human history is full of cases where people decided that some enemy 
(real or imagined, significant or exaggerated) justified a state of 
war in which normal civilized, genteel considerations no longer 
applied.  The results, which include the Spanish Inquisition, the 
Salem Witch Trials, and McCarthyism, are often judged harshly by 
later historians.  In the throes of a moral panic, people can enter a 
state of hysteria where they undermine the values that made their 
community good in the course of allegedly defending it, like the 
soldiers who destroyed a village in order to save it.  A Twilight 
Zone episode, "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street", provides a 
fictional illustration of the tendency of a community to be its own 
worst enemy.

-- 
== Dan ==
Dan's Mail Format Site: http://mailformat.dan.info/
Dan's Web Tips: http://webtips.dan.info/
Dan's Domain Site: http://domains.dan.info/