On 2/20/06, Jimmy Wales jwales@wikia.com wrote:
I want people to ask slowly and thoughtfully with deep respect for others, even others with whom they disagree. As far as I can tell, there is a strong consensus that having various sorts of advocacy userboxes is problematic, especially when they are promoted in the Wikipedia namespace as if they are a normal and proper part of Wikipedia culture.
No there isn't. More correctly no one seems to be sure how to define advocacy exactly so any possible consensus would be a moot point
I think it is somewhat problematic to have users pasting bits of cruft on their userpage which make them seem to be engaged in Wikipedia as activists for a particular POV. I think users should realize that having that sort of cruft on their userpage will quite rightly diminish other people's respect for you and your work. But, whatever, if people want to do it, I see no reason to get absolutely draconian about it.
It someone admits a POV it makes it much harder for them to push that POV. I fail to see a problem with this
However.
The current situation with these things being in the main Template namespace, and promoted as if healthy and normal in the Wikipedia namespace, is that they are damaging to our culture. They are attracting the wrong sort of people, and giving newcomers the wrong idea of what it means to be a Wikipedian.
I haven't really seen it. Most of the problem users I've run into lately are the same type I was running into over a year ago. Most new users settle down and edit quietly away. There will always be a few who cause problems.
That's why they need to go. Not to censor people's self-expression, but to make it clear that _as a whole_ the community considers these things to be divisive and inappropriate.
The community doesn't. Bits of it do but at the last count bits of the community considered the following to be divisive and inappropriate:
Userboxes Deleting user boxes IRC You Me [[Brian Peppers]] [[Image:Jyllands-Posten Muhammad drawings.jpg]] [[WP:CVU]]
I think getting rid of that lot would be a mistake -- geni