On 2/8/06, Peter Mackay peter.mackay@bigpond.com wrote:
From: wikien-l-bounces@Wikipedia.org [mailto:wikien-l-bounces@Wikipedia.org] On Behalf Of Matt Brown
On 2/8/06, Jay Converse supermo0@gmail.com wrote:
This is what I'm worried about, and the precedent I was
mentioning.
All of a sudden, userpages now need to be politically
correct, or you
risk a block. That is, if this precedent does get set.
You don't have a userpage in order to exercise any "right" to free speech, but because it helps the project; it aids communication and makes people happy. You never did have the right to say anything you pleased there; disruptiveness has always been unacceptable.
There's nothing particularly new about that proposed finding.
A common example is that while you have a right to freedom of speech, you don't have the right to shout "Fire!" in a crowded cinema.
If something on a userpage cause disruption and offence, then it should be removed.
The reason you can't shout "Fire!" in a crowded cinema is not because it causes disruption and offense, but because it could cause a panicked stampede, leading to real physical harm.
Which doesn't apply to Wikipedia.
People are entirely too touchy here.
After all we are a community, and sometimes small individual freedoms get sacrificed for the common good.
Which, history tells us, is rarely for the common good in the long run.