Steve Bennett wrote:
On 6/2/07, Matt R matt_crypto@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
The aforementioned Jeffrey O. Gustafson, who I'm sure is an entirely admirable Wikipedian, instructs us that, "our collective creative energies really should go to writing an encyclopedia rather than preserving and expanding on this garbage [BJAODN] - want to screw around on a wiki? Go to Uncyclopedia" --
Someone should debunk this illogical argument once and for all.
It's not just a question of debunking the argument; it's also about some admins having the courage to revert Gustafson's vandalism. It's these kind of plain bonehead moves that build disrespect and even more distrust for all admins, even the ones who wouldn't dream of such behaviour.
Suddenly, because one person has a strong dislike for anything that varies from his concept of seriousness, he undertakes to wipe out efforts that have been built up over more than five years. To do so more efficiently he makes up an argument about alleged copyvios, and uses that not only to delete the pages but to thwart any attempt to recreate them, or even discuss that possibility. Can he explain how this "copyvio" material has lasted for as much as five years without being noticed until he came out as a white knight to save us all from the evil infringers. After all something that has lasted that long is not going to hurt the project a lot more if it's allowed to last a week more while we discuss it. Unlike him, I would certainly welcome his comments at the discussion for each and everyone of those pages.
We really need to impress on people of this sort that sometimes civility and community is just as important as perfect articles, and paranoid impositions of idiosyncratic exegesis of copyrights and licences.
Ec