On 1/4/06, Stan Shebs shebs@apple.com wrote:
Tony Sidaway wrote:
We must stamp hard on this or we will have permitted these new editors to rebuild Wikipedia in the form of a network of people classified by political and religious alliances.
You keep saying this, but haven't yet explained how "stamping hard" on userboxes is supposed to prevent new editors from classifying themselves by politics and religion, or seeking out likeminded editors.
I don't want to stop new editors classifying themselves by politics or religion. I want to stop them abusing powerful Wikipedia resources such as templates and categories in order to find people who share their opinions, because this would be the end of consensus-based decision-making on Wikipedia.
That's the kind of mechanism that works well on myplace and similar forums, but it has no place here.