John Bradley (john(a)ontobus.co.uk) [050423 00:50]:
I think it is everyone who cares about Wikipedia as an
encyclopedia rather
than a social club stepped forward and be counted.
Personal attacks toward other editors are not tolerated because they drive
other volunteers away from editing. This is bad for Wikipedia.
Really. I pretty much don't care how much of an expert a given editor is -
if they're acting like an arsehole and making editing an unpleasant
experience for others, we don't need them. There are PLENTY of really quite
high-grade experts editing Wikipedia who don't in fact act like arseholes.
(This does, however, require a more than usual tolerance for and patience
with stupid fellow volunteers amongst the experts in question, and
occasional annoying having to prove things from first principles on talk
pages when the well-meaning idjit doesn't get it. This is quite a bit less
than ideal, and we need ways to deal with it, but it still isn't an excuse
for personal attacks.)
Note that Irate, the user in question, has not shown even this level of
justification for his streams of personal attacks.
- d.