Hum
I don't know what "Saturday Night Live" is
but that sure was something :-)
(side note : OJ Simpson does not trouble me much, but
I would remove Clinton from meta:crime, unzipping is
no crime. I would put it back for not assuming maybe
:-))
--- Ray Saintonge <saintonge(a)telus.net> wrote:
Sounds like KQ has blown his cover. Now we all know
he's a scriptwriter
for "Saturday Night Live". :-)
Ec
koyaanis qatsi wrote:
Nonetheless, for the sake of argument, let's
assume
that applying categories to our articles for the
sake
of filtering them from the innocent eyes of
children
can be handled without controversy, in spite of
the
general controversy already stirred up on the
mailing
list. Let us assume also that it can be done
without
running afoul of NPOV, and that this wikipedia
decree
of what is and is not Safe and Good and Morally
Just
for children to know will be accepted and endorsed
by
wikipedians in general. So, let's set about
categorizing articles.
Given that a category scheme with, say, 3million
categories would be worse than useless for the
purpose
of filtering content, we'll set a few
categories.
One
of them, as Jimbo has indicated, will be Crime.
What
articles are relevant to crime? Koyanis Qatsi
nominates [[George W. Bush]] for his cocaine habit,
but Powaqqatsi says "wait, wait, that's hearsay; we
can't include that." Ok, a fair point. Two paths
diverged in a POV debate, and which does wikipedia
take? Let's say wikipedia decides that the
metadata
crime can be added to any article with a mention
of
a
crime, whether it's been proven or not. So
mav
writes
an article on the well-known layabout gadfly KQ,
because he has it on good faith from a friend that
KQ
has once been convicted of jaywalking; and then
he
adds the metadata:crime to the article. KQ
"retaliates" and adds crime to the articles on
Bromide
and Arsenic, because they've been used in some
crimes
he knows about, and children shouldn't have
such
notions of poisoning put into their heads. Well,
AxelBoldt worked 812 hours apiece on those
articles,
and he won't have his work censored, so he
adds
metadata:crime to [[Sid Davis]] because, hell, it
does
mention molestation. Oh, this is going great.
Anthere adds metadata:crime to [[O.J. Simpson]];
Bryan
Derksen removes it because he was found innocent
in
criminal court; Brion Vibber restores it because he
was found guilty in civil court. [[24]] steps in
and
says "why should crime in the U.S. be the
deciding
factor? What about crime in the U.K., or Bhutan,
or
the Apache nation?" So Henry Kissinger gets
metadata:Crime because Chile wants him extradited
to
stand trial for war crimes. Jimbo steps in and
adds
crime to the Clintons for their -gate and for
Bill's
tendency to keep his zipper down, and Ed Poor adds
the
metadata to the articles on lead pipes, knives,
swords, Sherman tanks, and letter openers (a
mystery
crime favorite).
It's a ridiculous situation. Wikipedia comes to
its
senses and says "wait, the only articles that
will
get
the metadata:crime will be articles on *people*
who
have been tried for and convicted of a crime." A
better path. (though, I might add, still one that
is
provably illogical, given that courts reviewing
the
same evidence as other courts often overturn
verdicts,
and so even facts of a crime are open to
interpretation). Anyway, so metadata:crime is
inserted into articles on [[Randal Dale Adams]],
later
tried again and proven innocent, and [[Jesus
Christ]]--no appeal for him--and [[Nelson
Mandela]],
that agitator and limerock miner. Nice look, the
squint. Pizza Puzzle adds it to [[Adolf Hitler]]
but
Notheruser says "wait, wait, he was never
tried and
convicted; he committed suicide and didn't have a
chance to defend himself." So the label is
removed,
and is removed from [[Richard Nixon]] and [[Lee
Harvey
Oswald]], and [[Jack the Ripper]]. Hey, this
works
great.
sarcastically, bitterly, but still with a point.
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