When I started this thread, after my attention was drawn to this article during the "Darvon cocktail" discussion, I was uncomfortable with much of the content of this article but I will admit it was on something of a theoretical basis in terms of raising the issue whether the overly detailed analysis of suicide methods belonged on a top ten website.
However, in the current AfD discussion, which I acknowledge is trending toward "Keep" again, it is represented that at least one suicidal individual has ACTUALLY consulted this article for information on how to kill himself. This multiplies my concern tenfold.
Newyorkbrad
On 4/19/07, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
On 4/19/07, Doc glasgow doc.wikipedia@ntlworld.com wrote:
There is a flaw in your moral relativism. Hijacking planes and slamming
them
into buildings, lynching blacks, screwing pre-pubescent boys, and gassing Jews have all be considered perfectly valid options by certain people in certain cultural contexts. Would we list the methods by which one might do such things in a morally-disinterested manner?
Certainly. Of course we would also list the techniques people have found effective in preventing the above from happening
Is that what NPOV demands? Is that responsible?
I think this falls under the security by obscurity debate.
Further, if it is wrong to limit information on suicide because wikipedia
is
culturally amoral, why should your proviso "without crippling yourself or others" stand? It too is a value-judgement? Why not include methods that
are
designed to cause maximum devastation?
We do [[kamikaze]].
Yes, policy says Wikipedia is 'not censored', but our policies were never intended to be 'suicide pacts' that had to be followed to their logical conclusions no matter how absurd. Policy is no substitute for good judgement. And anyone who thinks we can make decisions in wikipedia
without
using 'subjectivity' just isn't living in the real world. Or perhaps they want to programme bots to make content decisions....
Orphanbot has being doing that for ages.
Having said all of that, I'm not sure this article actually does give me great cause for concern. But we should retain our basic humanity and cultural sensitivity when we make decisions like this.
It has been said that information is not intrinsically good or evil but rather the use.
-- geni
WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l