[WikiEN-l] What's going on? - Inquiry 2

[Marc Riddell]

on 9/13/07 9:19 AM, Christiano Moreschi at moreschiwikiman at hotmail.co.uk
wrote:

>> From: Marc Riddell <michaeldavid86 at comcast.net>
>> Reply-To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
>> To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
>> Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] What's going on? - Inquiry 2
>> Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 09:08:59 -0400
>> 
>> on 9/13/07 8:54 AM, Thomas Dalton at thomas.dalton at gmail.com wrote:
>> 
>>> On 13/09/2007, Marc Riddell <michaeldavid86 at comcast.net> wrote:
>>>> on 9/13/07 6:14 AM, Anirudh at anirudhsbh at gmail.com wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> Somehow, on
>>>>> Wikipedia, people tend to treat other users even worse, as if they
>> never
>>>>> profess any kind of feelings like humans do. I am guilty of this, most
>> of us
>>>>> are.
>>>> 
>>>> And do we accept this as a given? Do we excuse it by saying, "that's
>> the way
>>>> things are & always will be". And, as someone said, "that's the nature
>> of a
>>>> mailing list". Or, do we see it for the primitive, dehumanizing
>> behavior
>>>> that it is - and do something about it?
>>> 
>>> Photos on user pages? If you know what someone looks like, they seem
>>> more like a real person and less like some bits in a database.
>>> Obviously, some people would not want their picture on their user
>>> page, but for those that do, it might help. And improving relations
>>> between those might help improve relations with the others too.
>>> 
>> This would be a step in the right direction, Thomas. However, I still place
>> the responsibility for change on the abuser. Is a blind person more abusive
>> to someone simply because they can't see them?
>> 
>> Marc
> 
> I think this is a little touchy feel. The defining quality of humanity is
> reason. The extent to which some of our nationalists reject rationality
> is...depressing. I have little problems with spades being called spades, and
> trolls being labelled just that. In my rather crude way I don't see why
> those who mess up Wikipedia should not get what they merit.
> 
Moreschi,

Reason is the defining quality of a human being. The defining quality of
humanity is empathy.

And what's wrong with "touchy feel" :-). Seriously, you have described two
of our greatest senses.

Also, can't you make your arguments without calling someone names?

Marc