--- Daniel Mayer maveric149@yahoo.com wrote:
LDan wrote:
Most of those people only thought that others would be offended. I don't think that if a critical
mass of people think that others will be offfended by the username, that that user should have to change names.
Offense is only part of the picture. Equally important is the impression people get about Wikipedia by looking at Recent Changes and page histories. The page history issue is most important; would a downstream user want to list "Jesus is Lord!" as on of the five authors of a page? How does it make Wikipedia look when user:Jesus is Lord! is one of the authors to controversial subjects such as homosexuality and religion? That doesn't give the impresion of neutrality that we want and its mere presence in RC is an implicit way to welcome people of that POV while offending others who don't share that POV. All just affirmative (bumper sticker-like) statements should be banned from user names.
Our contributers have views, all of them. Just because someone's views are expressed in their username doesn't mean they should be banned.
If people didn't like wikipedia because usernames might reveal something about them, then shouldn't I change my username to something not implying I'm a child? After all, children, just like christians, can't write good encyclopedia articles.
And yes, I am very much offended by the user name.
[[User:AIDS kills fags dead]] (if it existed) would be similarly "cute."
-- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)
You're offended because someone is expressing that view? I'm against religion is school, but this is like telling people they can't say they have a religion when they're in the classroom. Jesus is Lord! is just a slogan, and it's not like telling people "You have to believe in Jesus, otherwise you're going to go to hell". *That* would be questionable, but this is not. "AIDS kills fags dead" is expressing a prejudice against gays, but IMHO "Jesus is Lord!" only reiterates the central (or at least original) Christian belief that seperates it from Judaism. LDan
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