Earlier: ... A great part of the cancer I refer to is the attitude of
some persons in the Community who not only condone, but actually encourage, the type of personal attack statements that began this conversation. And, the practice of some of calling names and labeling people they disagree with, rather than either engaging them in the subject or moving on ...
Peter Blaise responds:
Agreed. On http://www.mediawiki.org/ (the parent software wiki for Wikipedia) I objected to the http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_a_dick page which "officially" encourages all sorts of disrespect in the community. I get the attempt at humor. I just prefer humor that does not depend on ridicule and denigration, which I find unhealthy for the sender at least as well as unhealthy for the receiver of such disregard. Result? Banned. Ouch! So much for the Wiki Media Foundation believing in their own proto-democracy tool! This is what I mean by:
"Power corrupts. Absolute power (to ban) corrupts absolutely."
Hey, I'd LOVE to continue my contributions to the success of the Mediawiki efforts: http://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3AContributions&contr ibs=user&target=peterblaise
... but what can any of us do when the incivility and drama are admin-inflicted and enforced? WikiScanner is nice as a user check, but who check the admins?
http://mashable.com/2007/08/14/wikiscanner/
-- Peter Blaise