Sean Barret wrote,
>I am not lying when I say I am worried. I am worried about people who
>want to set up committees to decide what points of view will not be
>allowed to be represented in Wikipedia.
This is indeed a straw-man argument (to give Sean the benefit of the doubt;
if it is not a straw man argument, it is either a deliberate lie, or an
example of un-comprehension). No one -- no one at all -- has said that
they want to set up a committee to decide which points of view will not be
allowed on Wikipedia. On the contrary, Jayguk has suggested a committee
which will enforce NPOV, and Mav's suggested committees will obviously
adhere to our NPOV policy. Sean is clouding the issue by claiming it has
anything to do with NPOV. Or he believes that our NPOV policy means that
anything anyone writes stays, whether it is accurate or properly sourced or
not. If this is what Sean thinks, he is seriously misunderstanding or
deliberately misrepresenting our NPOV policy and I suggest he take the time
to read it.
Of course, misunderstanding or misrepresentation is something Sean is
well-practiced at. In reply to an earlier e-mail of mine, he wrote, "Silly
statements that are so very hard to spot that they cannot be rebutted and
can only be corrected by rendering them unexpressible are not
silly." Again no one -- no one at all -- has ever said that false
statements can be corrected "only" by rendering them "unexpressible," nor
have I or anyone else ever even suggested that content should be rendered
unexpressible. This is a matter of style, not content. Falsehoods can be
rendered unexpressible, truths or facts can be rendered lucid, even
eloquent. The proposals circulating have nothing to do with style, only
with content -- which is what an encyclopedia is all about.
People can "express" their personal views on talk-pages. But Sean seems to
think that Wikipedia is a chat-room, not an encyclopedia. In an
encyclopedia, verifiable and accurate (yes, presented in an NPOV way, as
everyone agrees) really are important.
Steve
Steven L. Rubenstein
Associate Professor
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Bentley Annex
Ohio University
Athens, Ohio 45701