On 2/20/06, Jimmy Wales <jwales(a)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