2009/6/26 Charles Matthews <charles.r.matthews(a)ntlworld.com>om>:
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.