Geez... it took me a while to get through all the messages posted
here in the last two days, and none of them were even posted by
myself (though my name came up once or twice).
OK... let's see what's going on with regard to the secret... oops, I
mean private (really, the only difference between "secrecy" and
"privacy" is that "privacy" spins better when you're trying to
support or endorse it) mailing list to discuss "harassment".
People on that list, or alleged to be on it, are becoming the subject
of vague calumnies from others who intimate that all sorts of
sinister things are getting plotted there for the purpose of causing
trouble for others outside the list. Presenting actual evidence for
the purpose of either supporting or refuting such claims runs into
difficulties due to aggressive enforcement of rules that get in the
way of it, so the discussion mostly takes the form of wild
speculation on the part of the accusers and defensiveness on the part
of the targets. Some claim that the list is doing actively malicious
things; others who don't go so far still say that being on that list
is likely to cause one to be enmeshed and reinforced in a cluster of
memes, kept alive and magnified through the sounding board of a group
of like-minded people, which will tend to bring about a bad attitude
that is perhaps incompatible with being a good, non-drama-stirring
member of the Wikipedia community.
Sound familiar? How does it feel to have the shoe on the other foot
for a change?
--
== Dan ==
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