RLS wrote:
On 10/19/07, Will Beback
<will.beback.1(a)gmail.com> wrote:
So you're saying that if an editor is
harassed by an outside group then
the editor (and Wikipedia) should give in to that harassment. And you
think that won't affect the POV of a topic? If a group succeeds in
driving off one editor after another, how many thick-skinned editors are
there willing to take their places?
I still fail to understand how removing links to a particular website
does anything except give [the group of Wikipedians advocating this
type of policy] an opportunity to claim the moral high ground. It
does not harm that website to have their links removed. It does not
make the harassment any harder for people to find, except by perhaps
adding the intermediate step of having to type the URL in by hand or
Google it -- all it does, in fact, is DRAW ATTENTION to the harassers
and the inappropriate material. "Oooooh, XYZ website is harassing
Wikipedians! Let's take all their links away!" and what happens?
EVERYONE rushes to read it. Why would you want to give the harassers
that kind of satisfaction?
As I mentioned before, if the harassment is more severe than just
inane blabbering on a webpage (personal info posted, threats of real
harm, etc etc), then report it to the police or the website's hosting
company or upstream carrier. That's far more effective in getting the
content hidden or shut down than just unlinking it from en.wp.
Anything that *is* just inane blabbering, just freakin' ignore it and
they will go away.
--Darkwind
_________________
Claiming the moral high ground is not part of the mission of
Wikipedia.
If someone else wants to claim it then fine,. let them. The purpose of
Wikipedia is to create a free, neutral encyclopedia.
Removing links does indeed make harassment harder to find. Retaining
links pushes the harassment into the harassed editor's face.
I'd hope that the policy we draft doesn't draw attention to the removal
process. Since we remove hundreds or thousands of links a day that
shouldn't be a problem.
I agree that all means of eliminating or minimizing harassment should be
used, including contacting the webmaster/harasser, calling the police,
and writing the carrier. That suite of tools should also include taking
down the link from Wikipedia, a top-10 internet site. Official channels
can have a high threshold for action, can take a long time to act, and
can even cost money. While they should be pursued if necessary, there
are simpler ways of reducing the impact of harassment and they start
with us.
W.