On 5/6/05, Rick giantsrick13@yahoo.com wrote:
WE are not reporting that he is Kook of the Millenium. We are reporting that the Usenet group so labeled him. This reporting is accurate and factual, and we shouldn't be removing the information.
All I'm arguing here is that we shouldn't try to exercise publishing power without responsibility; in other words, we shouldn't be bullies. If this were some newsworthy public figure trying to delete accurate, relevant, well-referenced, notable material about himself and threatening us with legal action, I might agree that we should revert him, argue with him, and ignore the threats. But this person we're ganging up on here is a non-notable, private individual who has done no harm other than to make a fool and a nuisance of himself on Usenet. Weve inserted his real name into an article; we've attached it to a slur; we've reverted him trying to delete it; we've protected the page so he can't delete it; we've ridiculed him when he contacted this mailing list for help; we've reverted the deletion that an admin tried to make; and now we're going to ban him for making legal threats. Which part of this exactly isn't bullying?
To make matters worse, the only reason you don't take his legal threats seriously is that he's made them before and nothing came of them. In other words, you're not taking him seriously because he's ineffectual and powerless. That's exactly when we should back off, not put the boot in further.
There's nothing worse than a powerful journalist who uses his or her position in the manner described above, and we've all become people who have, in many ways, just as much power (but without any of the infrastructural restraints journalists have), which means we have to exercise self-restraint and be decent. What's wrong with being decent all of a sudden?
Sarah