"Slim Virgin" wrote:
On 4/20/07, Tony Sidaway tonysidaway@gmail.com wrote:
On 4/19/07, Jeff Raymond jeff.raymond@gmail.com wrote:
Jimmy Wales wrote:
I disagree that there is any community consensus here.
Wow. Okay. what do you call the massive discussion, then?
Seriously, Jeff, can you look at the conflicting opinions being expressed by Wikipedians who hold one another in mutual regard, and proclaim a consensus on this issue?
Very few people have posted here or on Wikipedia in support of the unblock. There seems to be an overwhelming consensus against it -- including Brandt himself!
Actually, I thought the responses on this list have been pretty mixed. And I suspect a very large portion of the EN Wikipedia community are as yet completely unaware of the discussions. I was completely unaware of the noticeboard until it came up in this list the other day. I rather suspect that, like AN and DRV and AfD, the editors with an on-going interest in such areas are a relatively small subset of the Wikipedia universe. I'd be very hesitant about drawing any conclusions about a broad consensus based on the discussion on such a page.
I think most editors are quite content to edit quietly and have little inclination to enter into such a tempestuous thicket of ill-will as this topic represents. Of course we can't make any assumptions about what their opinions might be on the topic, either way, but when making claims about overwhelming consensus, it makes a difference whether it is a consensus of participants in a self-selected echo box or an actual cross-section of the community.
FWIW, I completely support Jimmy's unblock for the reasons that he has expressed. Of course, personally, I'd have no problem with deleting Brandt's bio either. He is completely unnotable, IMO. But if there is going to be an article about him, he should be able to comment about it on-wiki (provided his contributions going forward are done civilly and without being unreasonable in pushing a baseless POV).
Bkonrad