[Wikipedia-l] Autofellatio

[Gregory Maxwell]

On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 09:10:01 +0200, Andre Engels <andreengels at gmail.com> wrote:
> I think it's perfectly well acceptable. There is not one possible
> 'ultimate' content of Wikipedia, and one language will make other
> choices than others. If one language uses image A and another uses
> image B, should we start having a project-wide vote on which one is
> better, and then, if B is chosen, force the first language to change
> their article?

Well do we agree that the goal of wikipedia is the same in all languages?
 
> The test of material is not its value to educate and inform, the test
> is whether it improves the given article and Wikipedia. And it seems
> to be generally accepted that there are places where Wikipedias
> differ. On the Danish Wikipedia there are stubs that would not be
> accepted as such on the German Wikipedia (I think). Should one of them
> change their policy because such stubs do/don't educate and inform? I
> don't think so.

I think the improves test makes the most sense in the context of
replacing some piece of information with a similar piece of
information...  and that the removal of a piece of unique knowledge
conveying fact on an encyclopedic subject, without replacing it with
something equal, can only be seen as something which reduces the
quality of the wikipedia.
 
> A policy that says that we will exclude the same on all languages,
> says that we don't trust the Wikipedias to make their own choices.

It could also be said by extension to say that by having any policy at
all we are expressing distrust in our editors. This is obviously
silly. If the other languages are part of the same project there
should obviously be some ground rules that are shared in all of them.
 
> I disagree that you say it 'necessitates censorship'. To me, forcing
> the same inclusion standards to all languages is censorship. Unless
> perhaps we take the most lenient standards possible. But do you really
> want to *force* Wikipedias to include certain images?


I would *never* force a language to include an image.
However, I would suggest that if our goal is to never allow
peoplesnon-neutral value judgements to color our articles,  that we
deny the ability of participating subprojects to deny the ability of
others to include additional encyclopedic knowledge that has failed
the kind of test that the above goal precludes using.

In short I think that the editors right to decide what goes in the
official wikipedia ends when they begin using that right to control
others with the goal of imposing a point of view on the work as a
whole.   ("Your right to swing your fist ends at the tip of my nose")

This all stops being an issue if we decide that such value based
exclusion is acceptable in the project... But that isn't the message
I've been receiving.