On 3 Aug 2007 at 08:16:48 +0100, ElinorD <elinordf(a)gmail.com> wrote:
It's not possible to hush up this rumour, but it
should be possible to
create an environment where contributors who have given a lot to Wikipedia
and have been harassed as a result can feel that they have the support of
the community. Creating such an environment is good for Wikipedia, but I
sometimes feel that's overlooked. As one of the MONGO rulings said,
"Wikipedia users, especially administrators, will not permit a user under
attack to be isolated, but will support them. This may include reverting
harassing edits, protecting or deleting pages, blocking users, or taking
other appropriate action."
But what happens when Slim and her friends, acting in "solidarity" as
encouraged by that ruling, become persecutors themselves, ganging up
on people who are critical of or opposed to them, or otherwise are
perceived as "enemies"?
In the "real world", the categories of "victim" and
"persecutor" are
far from being completely disjoint, as seen repeatedly in history.
The Christians were persecuted and martyred by the Romans, but later
gained political power and perpetrated the Crusades and the
Inquisition. The Serbs and Croats, the Irish Catholics and
Protestants, the Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds, and lots of other sets
of groups, have alternated between being the victims of persecution
and being the perpetrators of it. Why should things be any different
with the personalities and groups on Wikipedia?
--
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