-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel R. Tobias [mailto:dan@tobias.name]
Sent: Saturday, October 20, 2007 04:57 PM
To: wikien-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: [WikiEN-l] Cla68 blocked for asking question
Durova has blocked Cla68 for 24 hours for responding to Jimbo's
posting on [[Talk:Gary Weiss]], which included "No nonsense, zero
tolerance, shoot on sight.", with "Most of us usually try to give
some reasoning for any action, proposed action, or threatened action
that we discuss on an article's talk page. Would you mind doing the
same?" It was claimed that this was a "WP:POINT" violation. Just
how is asking the reasons behind a draconian statement a block-worthy
violation?
I swear, with every passing minute Wikipedia becomes more of a self-
parody, with people getting subjected to punitive sanctions for
having the effrontery to question whether the authorities on
Wikipedia are getting overly punitive. It reminds me of the
government of Singapore, which once sued a journalist who had written
that the government suppresses criticism by suing its critics.
People sometimes justify the need for "getting tough" on trolls,
harrassers, and the like because they're driving good editors out;
however, I've been feeling more and more like I'm about ready to take
a Wikibreak myself, being constantly disgusted at the direction the
Wikipedia culture is going and how Jimbo seems to be actively
supporting this development himself. I'm sure there are a bunch of
people who will cheer if and when I go away.
--
== Dan ==
_______________________________________________
Well, yes, you add little to legitimate dialog, but part of what you see is the contrast between the very liberal rules which govern this mailing list and the level of tolerance on the talk page of the article about a subject who is actively being harassed. If you have something to say about such harassment, you are expected to be knowledgable about it. Cla68 adopted a pose of naive ignorance. You like that pose too, and it is an effective debating technique, in fact, Socrates often used in the dialogues published by Plato. However, when you get down to cases, and there you are, in the midst of an active dispute, acting dumb, well...
Fred