Twice recently I have been reverted for removing vulgar jokes from article talk pages on the English Wikipedia - most recently for removing a joke who's punchline was "A woman's anus after she was sodomized!". Although I appreciate the use of humor on Wikipedia, and support the inclusion of potentially offensive material within appropriate contexts, I think these type of jokes are not appropriate on talk pages and create a sexualized environment that is often unwelcoming for women (as well as people from other cultures/religions/backgrounds). I think this issue is pertinent to the gender gap (unlike my other recent posts), and would like to hear other people's opinions. I've also started a discussion at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Civility#Vulgar_jokes for broader input. Ryan Kaldari

It seems from my experience that WP:RD2 is usually interpreted fairly narrowly, at least in the cases I've tried to use it. Specifically it requires the material to be "grossly" offensive and excludes "'ordinary' incivility". In the world of Wikipedia, grossly offensive is a pretty high bar it seems. Right now, I have a hard time even convincing people that this sort of stuff is incivil, much less worthy of revision deletion. My favorite example is the Talk Page for Rubyfruit Jungle. It took 4 years, 10 editors, and a couple of edit wars to remove a joke posted by an anonymous IP about vaginas smelling like fish. Ryan Kaldari

To beef up women's assertiveness so they protest, or to give more power to some authoritarian editors to delete and block reverters, that is the question. Why not do both?? :-) Or just get more assertive female admins. A job I myself shrink at the thought of. I already have enough problems just trying to edit the controversial articles I so often end up editing. But then I am a glutton for punishment - or is it merely negative attention??

So I've been asked by a few people to run for admin on Wikipedia, all people we know here. And to be honest - and I haven't been with them - I *want* to be admin, I want to be admin on Commons also (yeah right :( ) but I know, because I am who I am, I feel like I'm going to have an extra hard time. I know the vocal minority who will speak up. I'm lucky that the guy who stalked me who is a Wikimedian is at least banned from Wikipedia... I hate to say it...but, the idea of getting crucified just so I can clean up some pages and have authority makes my heart race. And I can handle a lot, but honestly, some of these people make me so uncomfortable, nervous and anxious, that I have no desire to go through the administrator nominator process because I fear I can't "make it" with the large group of technologically capable people and those who have perfected their Wiki-persona by being assholes who like to "put baby in a corner." I lied to the two people who asked me to run, two people I consider very close friends and colleagues - I told them I had no clue what I'd even use my administrative "buttons" for. I guess I still don't, but, I know I could make a difference. But honestly, I don't want to go through torture to have a symbol on my user page when I know so many people who seem to have a problem with me, and I'm sure Carol understands that. Sorry to be all "boohoo" "feel sorry for me" about this, but, I often start to question the culture I'm surrounding myself with when I, a fairly confident, capable and badass person, find myself "afraid" to apply for a volunteer position within a culture that I value so much because I think people will just be assholes for the purpose of being assholes. On a positive note, I did get OTRS access and I now look at Commons stuff and general "info-en" it's actually been pretty laid back, but, I cleared out a queue of about 100 things that had been waiting for responses for upwards of 2 months. So I feel rather productive thus far =) (And the thank you's people send you are really nice!) -Sarah On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 10:24 AM, &lt;carolmooredc(a)verizon.net&gt; wrote: -- GLAMWIKI Partnership Ambassador for Wikimedia <http://www.glamwiki.org> Wikipedian-in-Residence, Archives of American Art<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:SarahStierch> and Sarah Stierch Consulting *Historical, cultural & artistic research & advising.* ------------------------------------------------------ http://www.sarahstierch.com/ _______________________________________________ Gendergap mailing list Gendergap(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap