Tony Sidaway wrote:
What encyclopedic end would be achieved by someone trawling through this mix of discarded rubbish in a belated attempt to make it licence-compliant? Why should anyone make the effort? Let it go.
I don't know about you, but I spend time on Wikipedia because it's fun and because it's rewarding when it's not fun.
BJAODN is a great example of people taking something annoying and making it fun. It's proof that we jointly have a sense of fun, an esprit de corps, a belief that all the idiots in the world can't spoil this for us. Rather, it was proof of that. Honestly, I haven't looked at it much lately, but first coming across it was a joy, like finding an easter egg in a treasured game.
The reason to put it back, and to clean it up if it needs cleaning, is to show that spirit still lives. That will help us keep good editors and attract new ones.
For me personally, another part of the motivation is as much the manner in which this was done as the outcome. I thought it was rude, unnecessarily dramatic and wasteful, and I'm unconvinced that this happened out of a pure-minded desire to treat our contributors fairly under the GFDL. It feels to me like somebody rammed something down the community's throat without any attempt to build consensus.
I don't even like good decisions done like that, and so that magnifies the harm I see in what I think is a bad decision.
William