Hi,
the english language OTRS queue does receive about 20-40 emails per day, with a large share of emails coming from a "template" draft, demanding the removal of images showing the person which is considered to be a prophet by some.
Since the large share of the emails consists of sentences which are not from the actual person which is writing to us, it is not possible to count this as a correct represenation of the individual intentions of those people.
My suggestion would be to collect the email addresses from the OTRS info-en:Muhammad sub-queue (and maybe from the general info-en queue dealing with that topic) and send out a survey with a few questions about their intentions. Each email to the people in that list should contain an URL to a web based survey with a unique ID to prevent multiple participation. Input on the wording and the methodology is highly appreciated. Please note that some questions are overlapping.
I do not expect to get represenative figures from such a survey but only a number of insights on the opinions of this very special group of people who chose to send along emails to WMF, complaining about the image. It will also cover the people who emailed us in support of keeping the images, who could also answer the questions from their respective point of view.
1. Topic-related:
Please state on a scale from 0 to 10 (10 being the strongest), whether the following statements apply to you or whether you consider these statements to be correct:
a) Knowing that a web site displays a copy of an medieval drawing depicting the islamic prophet Muhammad does emotionally hurt me in my everyday life: 0-10 b) Knowing that a web site displays a copy of an medieval drawing depicting the islamic prophet Muhammad does hurt my religious feelings: 0 - 10 c) Contemporary islamic interpretation of iconophobia should always apply to any web site, regardless of their country of origin or their religous affiliation: 0 - 10 d) Threatening physical violence to people displaying medieval drawings to force them to remove those images is justified: 0 - 10 e) It would be sufficient to provide a personal feature which allows me to turn showing the images off (just for me). Others would still see them as default: 0 - 10 f) It would be sufficient to move those images to a special article called [[Depictions of Muhammed]]: 0 - 10 g) Wikipedia should be allowed to decide the question of proper illustration of articles on their own: 0 - 10 h) Wikipedia should not only remove drawings of an unveiled Muhammad but also any other image showing him: 0 - 10 i) Wikipedia should not only remove drawings of Muhammad but also any other image showing people: 0 - 10 j) If Wikipedia keeps those images online, it will cause disturbances among Muslims: 0 - 10 k) Wikipedia has an obligation to maintain articles to Islam-related topics in a factual and neutral way: 0 - 10
2. Personal information (optional)
Please state the following information about yourself, if you want:
a) age b) gender c) country of origin d) religious affiliation
On 23/02/2008, Mathias Schindler mathias.schindler@gmail.com wrote:
My suggestion would be to collect the email addresses from the OTRS info-en:Muhammad sub-queue (and maybe from the general info-en queue dealing with that topic) and send out a survey with a few questions about their intentions. Each email to the people in that list should contain an URL to a web based survey with a unique ID to prevent multiple participation. Input on the wording and the methodology is highly appreciated. Please note that some questions are overlapping.
Don't forget a question (and link to) the Britannica page.
- d.
On Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 6:22 PM, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
Don't forget a question (and link to) the Britannica page.
I would not dare to endanger a species that is already close to extinction.
We could rephrase the question/statement regarding other web sites with the purpose of education and information.
Mathias
Not to be unconstructive, but I think a survey is totally irrelevant. It seems quite obvious to me that the only deciding factor in those who want to smash Wikipedia in to submission (how perfect a word, considering that's what Islam means).
We have a no censorship policy, and I don't particularlyl care about whatever demographic is so backwards and hateful as to demand we censor an otherwise mundane portrait of a particular human being.
On Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 9:31 AM, Mathias Schindler < mathias.schindler@gmail.com> wrote:
On Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 6:22 PM, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
Don't forget a question (and link to) the Britannica page.
I would not dare to endanger a species that is already close to extinction.
We could rephrase the question/statement regarding other web sites with the purpose of education and information.
Mathias
WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
On Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 9:16 AM, Mathias Schindler mathias.schindler@gmail.com wrote:
Hi,
the english language OTRS queue does receive about 20-40 emails per day, with a large share of emails coming from a "template" draft, demanding the removal of images showing the person which is considered to be a prophet by some.
Since the large share of the emails consists of sentences which are not from the actual person which is writing to us, it is not possible to count this as a correct represenation of the individual intentions of those people.
My suggestion would be to collect the email addresses from the OTRS info-en:Muhammad sub-queue (and maybe from the general info-en queue dealing with that topic) and send out a survey with a few questions about their intentions. Each email to the people in that list should contain an URL to a web based survey with a unique ID to prevent multiple participation. Input on the wording and the methodology is highly appreciated. Please note that some questions are overlapping.
I do not expect to get represenative figures from such a survey but only a number of insights on the opinions of this very special group of people who chose to send along emails to WMF, complaining about the image. It will also cover the people who emailed us in support of keeping the images, who could also answer the questions from their respective point of view.
- Topic-related:
Please state on a scale from 0 to 10 (10 being the strongest), whether the following statements apply to you or whether you consider these statements to be correct:
a) Knowing that a web site displays a copy of an medieval drawing depicting the islamic prophet Muhammad does emotionally hurt me in my everyday life: 0-10 b) Knowing that a web site displays a copy of an medieval drawing depicting the islamic prophet Muhammad does hurt my religious feelings: 0 - 10 c) Contemporary islamic interpretation of iconophobia should always apply to any web site, regardless of their country of origin or their religous affiliation: 0 - 10 d) Threatening physical violence to people displaying medieval drawings to force them to remove those images is justified: 0 - 10 e) It would be sufficient to provide a personal feature which allows me to turn showing the images off (just for me). Others would still see them as default: 0 - 10 f) It would be sufficient to move those images to a special article called [[Depictions of Muhammed]]: 0 - 10 g) Wikipedia should be allowed to decide the question of proper illustration of articles on their own: 0 - 10 h) Wikipedia should not only remove drawings of an unveiled Muhammad but also any other image showing him: 0 - 10 i) Wikipedia should not only remove drawings of Muhammad but also any other image showing people: 0 - 10 j) If Wikipedia keeps those images online, it will cause disturbances among Muslims: 0 - 10 k) Wikipedia has an obligation to maintain articles to Islam-related topics in a factual and neutral way: 0 - 10
- Personal information (optional)
Please state the following information about yourself, if you want:
a) age b) gender c) country of origin d) religious affiliation
WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
You forgot:
j) I can read and comprehend the following statement: "WIKIPEDIA CONTAINS SPOILERS AND CONTENT YOU MAY FIND OBJECTIONABLE". 0-10.
Why are we even having this discussion? Frank articles on sexual practices would offend many religions and their adherents, let alone illustrations. Description of many religions as anything but the One True Way may very well offend that religion. There are innumerable things we do which may offend some religion or another. We don't remove or change things for that reason. Maybe we should change "Wikipedia is not censored" to "Wikipedia is not censored, not even if you yowl really, really, really loud." How about, instead of surveys, we just say "Sorry it offends you, but our mission is to educate, not to avoid offense to you, and it's not getting changed"?
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
On 24/02/2008, Todd Allen wrote:
On Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 9:16 AM, Mathias Schindler
wrote:
Hi,
the english language OTRS queue does receive about 20-40 emails per day, with a large share of emails coming from a "template" draft, demanding the removal of images showing the person which is considered to be a prophet by some.
Since the large share of the emails consists of sentences which are not from the actual person which is writing to us, it is not possible to count this as a correct represenation of the individual intentions of those people.
My suggestion would be to collect the email addresses from the OTRS info-en:Muhammad sub-queue (and maybe from the general info-en queue dealing with that topic) and send out a survey with a few questions about their intentions. Each email to the people in that list should contain an URL to a web based survey with a unique ID to prevent multiple participation. Input on the wording and the methodology is highly appreciated. Please note that some questions are overlapping.
I do not expect to get represenative figures from such a survey but only a number of insights on the opinions of this very special group of people who chose to send along emails to WMF, complaining about the image. It will also cover the people who emailed us in support of keeping the images, who could also answer the questions from their respective point of view.
- Topic-related:
Please state on a scale from 0 to 10 (10 being the strongest), whether the following statements apply to you or whether you consider these statements to be correct:
a) Knowing that a web site displays a copy of an medieval drawing depicting the islamic prophet Muhammad does emotionally hurt me in my everyday life: 0-10 b) Knowing that a web site displays a copy of an medieval drawing depicting the islamic prophet Muhammad does hurt my religious feelings: 0 - 10 c) Contemporary islamic interpretation of iconophobia should always apply to any web site, regardless of their country of origin or their religous affiliation: 0 - 10 d) Threatening physical violence to people displaying medieval drawings to force them to remove those images is justified: 0 - 10 e) It would be sufficient to provide a personal feature which allows me to turn showing the images off (just for me). Others would still see them as default: 0 - 10 f) It would be sufficient to move those images to a special article called [[Depictions of Muhammed]]: 0 - 10 g) Wikipedia should be allowed to decide the question of proper illustration of articles on their own: 0 - 10 h) Wikipedia should not only remove drawings of an unveiled Muhammad but also any other image showing him: 0 - 10 i) Wikipedia should not only remove drawings of Muhammad but also any other image showing people: 0 - 10 j) If Wikipedia keeps those images online, it will cause disturbances among Muslims: 0 - 10 k) Wikipedia has an obligation to maintain articles to Islam-related topics in a factual and neutral way: 0 - 10
- Personal information (optional)
Please state the following information about yourself, if you want:
a) age b) gender c) country of origin d) religious affiliation
WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
You forgot:
j) I can read and comprehend the following statement: "WIKIPEDIA CONTAINS SPOILERS AND CONTENT YOU MAY FIND OBJECTIONABLE". 0-10.
If you don't find at least some of Wikipedia objectionable, we'd be failing at writing an encyclopaedia.
- -- Oldak Quill (oldakquill@gmail.com)
I think the survey is a great idea, but you should probably get it translated into other languages -- or write a much simpler version, like this one, that would be easier for non-native speakers to understand (plus a header to put it in context).
* * *
Hello, Wikipedia has received your letter about the images of muhammad. We want to know more about what you think!
Read the statements that come next. You can help us by telling us if you agree with these statements. If you totally agree, answer the statement with the number 10; if you totally disagree, answer with the number 0. If you don't totally agree or totally disagree, answer with a number between 0 and 10.
a) If a website shows an ancient drawing depicting the prophet Muhammad, this hurts me emotionally, and the emotional hurt is a part of my everyday life.
b) If a website shows an ancient drawing depicting the prophet Muhammad, this hurts my religious feelings but the hurt is not part of my everyday life.
c) No website should be allowed to show ancient images depicting Muhammad, even if those websites are not from muslim countries or written by muslims.
d) It is so important to stop people from showing ancient images depicting Muhammad that it is okay to threaten those people with physical violence.
e) If Wikipedia would provide a way for me to turn off these images so that I would never see them, but other people would still see them, this would be okay.
f) If Wikipedia would remove these images from the regular article about Muhammad, but put them into another page instead, this would be okay.
g) Wikipedia should use its own ideas to decide how to illustrate its articles: 0 - 10
h) Wikipedia should only remove drawings Muhammad that show him without a veil.
i) Wikipedia should remove every drawing of Muhammad
j) Wikipedia should should remove every drawing of Muhammad, and also every other image that shows any person
j) If Wikipedia keeps the drawings of Muhammad online, it will cause disturbances among Muslims
k) Wikipedia should maintain articles about Islam using facts and a neutral way of thinking.
On Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 12:16 PM, Mathias Schindler mathias.schindler@gmail.com wrote:
Hi,
the english language OTRS queue does receive about 20-40 emails per day, with a large share of emails coming from a "template" draft, demanding the removal of images showing the person which is considered to be a prophet by some.
Since the large share of the emails consists of sentences which are not from the actual person which is writing to us, it is not possible to count this as a correct represenation of the individual intentions of those people.
My suggestion would be to collect the email addresses from the OTRS info-en:Muhammad sub-queue (and maybe from the general info-en queue dealing with that topic) and send out a survey with a few questions about their intentions. Each email to the people in that list should contain an URL to a web based survey with a unique ID to prevent multiple participation. Input on the wording and the methodology is highly appreciated. Please note that some questions are overlapping.
I do not expect to get represenative figures from such a survey but only a number of insights on the opinions of this very special group of people who chose to send along emails to WMF, complaining about the image. It will also cover the people who emailed us in support of keeping the images, who could also answer the questions from their respective point of view.
- Topic-related:
Please state on a scale from 0 to 10 (10 being the strongest), whether the following statements apply to you or whether you consider these statements to be correct:
a) Knowing that a web site displays a copy of an medieval drawing depicting the islamic prophet Muhammad does emotionally hurt me in my everyday life: 0-10 b) Knowing that a web site displays a copy of an medieval drawing depicting the islamic prophet Muhammad does hurt my religious feelings: 0 - 10 c) Contemporary islamic interpretation of iconophobia should always apply to any web site, regardless of their country of origin or their religous affiliation: 0 - 10 d) Threatening physical violence to people displaying medieval drawings to force them to remove those images is justified: 0 - 10 e) It would be sufficient to provide a personal feature which allows me to turn showing the images off (just for me). Others would still see them as default: 0 - 10 f) It would be sufficient to move those images to a special article called [[Depictions of Muhammed]]: 0 - 10 g) Wikipedia should be allowed to decide the question of proper illustration of articles on their own: 0 - 10 h) Wikipedia should not only remove drawings of an unveiled Muhammad but also any other image showing him: 0 - 10 i) Wikipedia should not only remove drawings of Muhammad but also any other image showing people: 0 - 10 j) If Wikipedia keeps those images online, it will cause disturbances among Muslims: 0 - 10 k) Wikipedia has an obligation to maintain articles to Islam-related topics in a factual and neutral way: 0 - 10
- Personal information (optional)
Please state the following information about yourself, if you want:
a) age b) gender c) country of origin d) religious affiliation
WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l