Re: employers and dress codes.
I used to volunteer to work in a local youth club. There was an implicit dress code. A suit would have been unacceptable. A "loud" T-shirt would also have been unacceptable. I was doing the children a favour, but in doing that favour I had certain responsibilities, and dressing appropriately was part of that. Compare golf clubs, night clubs, pubs, etc, etc.
It's good that people volunteer to work on Wikipedia. We're grateful for their hard work. But with that work comes responsibility. We ask that contributors check their facts and take some pride in their work. We ask that they collaborate with others. We ask that they behave civilly and with respect. Asking that they use an appropriate username is an extension of that, and not wildly unreasonable.
There is a middle way between unrestricted freedom of speech and "the tyranny of majorities who carry on like on-line lynch mobs" (nice turn of phrase). I think it lies in balancing an appropriate dress code with an appropriate means of asking people to follow that dress code.
-Martin "MyRedDice" Harper
[Reply to both Martin and to wikiEN-L.]
Martin Harper wrote in part:
There is a middle way between unrestricted freedom of speech and "the tyranny of majorities who carry on like on-line lynch mobs" (nice turn of phrase). I think it lies in balancing an appropriate dress code with an appropriate means of asking people to follow that dress code.
There's also a middle way between asking people to behave and forcing them to, a middle way between hard rules and a lack of individual responsibility. Drolsi was originally hit with the demand that his name would be changed, whether he liked it or not. When people (not just me, you too, and I'm sorry that I previous post of mine implied otherwise) began to talk /with/ him, rather then /tell/ him what would be done, then he was a reasonable person and did the right thing.
-- Toby
Toby Bartels wrote:
There's also a middle way between asking people to behave and forcing them to, a middle way between hard rules and a lack of individual responsibility. Drolsi was originally hit with the demand that his name would be changed, whether he liked it or not. When people (not just me, you too, and I'm sorry that I previous post of mine implied otherwise) began to talk /with/ him, rather then /tell/ him what would be done, then he was a reasonable person and did the right thing.
There's a lesson for us all there. Toby is, without question, one of our finest, and yet he had to learn this lesson again here. I re-learn this every couple of weeks, it seems. :-)
--Jimbo