On 5/16/06, Steve Bennett stevage@gmail.com wrote:
On 5/16/06, Erik Moeller eloquence@gmail.com wrote:
Republican => interested in politics anti-Scientologist => interested in Scientology deletionist=> interested in AfD nymphomaniac => interested in contraception
Smells like euphemisms. And it pretty much amounts to the same thing.
No, there's one crucial difference. I would put myself in "interested in Christianity", even though I am a staunch atheist. I suspect that so would many others. It's not about hiding your beliefs - I think that would be pointless. My argument is that _identifiable factions_, that is, permanent groups that are categorized and listed, should be open to all convictions about a given subject. They can be subject-specific, but they shouldn't be belief-specific.
If you want to say on your user page that you're a Christian, that's one thing. If you want to form a group of Christians who work together because they share their belief system, then you're on the wrong site. Certainly, you can find others who want to work with you on Christianity articles. But you will have to accept that they may disagree with you about the fundamentals.
It's true that for many subcultures, "being interested in" will be equivalent to "being a fan/member of". You will find that in many existing WikiProjects (e.g. most members of the LDS WikiProject are Mormons), but I haven't heard anyone ever suggest that WikiProjects and Portals are harmful in the way "divisive" userboxes are. That's because WikiProjects (should) accept members of all persuasions on a topic.
Erik