[Wikipedia-l] Lir and Christopher Columbus

[Jimmy Wales]

Tom Parmenter wrote:
> I'll suggest this again.  Banning a contributor forces some authority
> figure to decide who is right and wrong.  Why not freeze the topic
> instead?  There is no hurry to complete any topic, but edit wars are
> fueled by adrenalin and adrenalin doesn't last.  I'd suggest that
> [[reality]] could be frozen for a day, week, month, or even  year
> without any harm to the ultimate wikipedia and in the meantime all
> participants could cool off, write articles distinguishing the various
> Three Stooges, defect to slashdot, die, or whatever.  There could be
> degrees of this, we could freeze the page only, or freeze the talk
> page if things got too hot.  .

Or, we could just relax and let the article be wrong for awhile.  In a
day, maybe everyone will feel better.

If some particularly vicious argument goes on for weeks at a time,
then we can start thinking about alternative solutions.  But, usually,
people get tired of it.

Was Columbus a slave trader before coming to the New World?  Maybe, I
don't actually know.  But I do know that it's the sort of claim that
needs some documentation.  Maybe the guy who wants to say that can
provide documentation, OR someone who doesn't want to say that can
provide counter-documentation.

In the meantime, edit wars just make us all unhappy.

--Jimbo