2009/6/26 Charles Matthews charles.r.matthews@ntlworld.com:
Fine. So "assume good faith" is not the de facto standard on the Internet. "Assume convoluted conspiracy" is closer to being the de facto standard on some forums, to put it bluntly. The reason AGF is a good idea for WP is that we have work to do; we can usefully leave it to others, less concerned with free content, to type endlessly about things about which they are at best half-informed. The "nofollow policy" was standard on wikipedias other than the English for a long time without anyone kicking up a fuss. Eventually enWP was getting so much spam that the spam patrol started lobbying for enWP to get in line with the rest. Jimmy Wales certainly promoted the change, but in the end we have to let the devs handle the issue when it is this technical (and they are not accountable to me, or you). (My recollection, this is.) This is also a good idea because we have work to do.
Indeed. Those concerned with the "nofollow issue" are nothing to do with Wikipedia or our readers; they are largely a third party (SEOs) wanting to get in good with a fourth party (Google), or they're conspiracy-theorising nutters (Wikipedia Review). In either case, paying attention does very little to write an encyclopedia.
- d.