I think that's a very perceptive analysis, Stan. I agree completely.
Just as a by the way, I think that Wik's current user page is beyond the pale. We have a firm rule against personal attacks, and he's really crossed the line there recently. He calls lots of people "morons" and "Nazi" and "lying" and so on. And he did so after I tried to persuade him to not use that page in a provocative manner.
I am of the tentative opinion that he did it (post a list of morons, trolls, etc) simply to get a rise out of people, simply to be obnxious, simply because he wants to be banned. Others may disagree about his motives, but it is hard to disagree that we do have a rule against that sort of thing.
--Jimbo
Stan Shebs wrote:
Jimmy Wales wrote:
The problem here is ironic. We let trolls go on a bit too much. Then someone like Wik sticks his neck out to fight them, but *also* in the process makes himself extremely annoying to other users. If we had already gotten rid of the original problem users, then maybe Wik wouldn't have felt compelled to behave badly.
Wik would be great if he were the only person working on Wikipedia. But he seems unable to distinguish between trolling and good-faith editing; if you disagree with him on *anything*, it must be because you're a troll or a moron or both. As you can now see from his user page, if you get rid of everyone that Wik deems a problem user, you'll end up with a much-shrunken list of contributors.
Wiki editing requires an atmosphere of basic mutual trust; anybody who insists on poisoning that, either by doing untrustworthy things (trolling, sock puppetry, etc), or by distrusting everybody else indiscriminately (Wik), has to be excluded for the sake of everybody else.
Stan
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