Fwiw, I've long thought the presence of graphic sexual pictures on Commons, and certainly in Wikipedia, does more harm than good, because it means the site "can't be trusted" in the eyes of librarians, teachers, etc etc.
So, in other words, it's a good idea to have rules based on what people think of us. Perhaps you have other reasons for thinking that we shouldn't have graphic images on Wikipedia, but since this is only one that you have expressed, it's the only one I will respond to. I respectfully disagree. What John Q. Public thinks should only be a minor factor in Wikipedian policy, NOT the deciding factor.
Sometimes a graphic sexual or anatomical image is warranted for educational purposes. If anything, that would mean that teachers and librarians should trust us more (albeit sometimes secretly due to workplace politics or policies), since we aren't afraid to, for example, have an article about a famous, explicit painting, and to also have that painting in the article. Should the policies surrounding such images need to be clarified? Sure. But regardless of the chanting of "Think of the children!", we need to not ban such images entirely.
Emily
On May 11, 2010, at 4:43 PM, Steve Bennett wrote:
On Tue, May 11, 2010 at 10:08 AM, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
On 11 May 2010 00:12, Carcharoth carcharothwp@googlemail.com wrote:
Can you explain why Wikipedia and Wikimedia tends to avoid having explicit guidelines on such matters?
It's a gross NPOV violation.
I don't see it, David. An NPOV violation would be something like a rule against articles on sexual practices discussing whether or not they appear in the bible, or something. I don't really see how the absence of graphic images changes the neutrality of the content otherwise.
Fwiw, I've long thought the presence of graphic sexual pictures on Commons, and certainly in Wikipedia, does more harm than good, because it means the site "can't be trusted" in the eyes of librarians, teachers, etc etc.
Steve
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