<P>If we don't do this, we're going to find that Wikipedia is being filtered out by dumb parental control software and the protective filters in place with such search engines as Google. Then of what use will it be to anyone?
<P>Zoe
<P> <B><I>Steve Callaway <sjc@easynet.co.uk></I></B> wrote:
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">This is a very dangerous area indeed and a seriously slippery slope. I can<BR>see the arguments for it but the obverse side of this coin is that if it's<BR>possible to introduce sexual censorship in this way it is entirely<BR>conceivable that political censorship could be attained by a similar<BR>mechanism. This is NOT a genie to be let out of the bottle. There is enough<BR>political and social hypocrisy and outright political propaganda in the<BR>corpus of Wikipedia already without introducing convenient new mechanisms<BR>for the thought & ideas police.<BR><BR>rgds<BR><BR>Steve Callaway<BR>----- Original Message -----<BR>From: "Poor, Edmund W" <EDMUND.W.POOR@ABC.COM><BR>To: <WIKIPEDIA-L@WIKIPEDIA.ORG><BR>Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2002 2:47 PM<BR>Subject: [Wikipedia-l] Censorship and bowdlerization<BR><BR><BR>> I like the idea expressed by Anthere and others of finding a way to shield<BR>tender eyes from "adult" stuff. A significant minority of users believe that<BR>young people of a certain age should not be exposed to certain materials.<BR>><BR>> This is totally without prejudice to the debate over whether sexuality is<BR>"sinful", just a reflection of the desire of many parents and educators to<BR>introduce some subjects step by step, keyed to the maturity level of the<BR>learner.<BR>><BR>> Someday, we plan to make the Wikipedia available on CD-ROM for schools and<BR>libraries that don't have T-1 lines (or the patience to tolerate the "lag"<BR>problem). It would be very useful to allow a parent or educator to filter<BR>out a few articles such as [[****-piercing]] or [[fisting]] or whatever.<BR>><BR>> A rating system would facilitate this.<BR>><BR>> I myself would like to be able to filter out the following (in no<BR>particular order):<BR>> * Any mention of TMC's username (as in Recent Changes, his user page and<BR>user talk page)<BR>> * All articles on bizarre sexuality (BDSM, etc.)<BR>><BR>> I would like to retain the articles related to homosexuality, since they<BR>are so well written (i.e., NPOV rather than pro-gay) -- but I might be<BR>biased by pride of workmanship since I put a lot of effort into some of<BR>them.<BR>><BR>> Those who don't want this filtering should be able to bypass it easily.<BR>><BR>> So it could be a user option, with the default set to NO FILTERING.<BR>><BR>> Ed Poor<BR>> Tolerant Absolutist<BR>> _______________________________________________<BR>> Wikipedia-l mailing list<BR>> Wikipedia-l@wikipedia.org<BR>> http://www.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l<BR>><BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>Wikipedia-l mailing list<BR>Wikipedia-l@wikipedia.org<BR>http://www.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l</BLOCKQUOTE><p><br><hr size=1>Do you Yahoo!?<br>
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