-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel P. B. Smith [mailto:wikipedia2006@dpbsmith.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 06:04 PM
To: wikien-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: [WikiEN-l] Could we tone down the language a bit?
Someone on this mailing recently started a thread:
Subject: [WikiEN-l] psychosis and wikipedia.
I'd love to see some psychology-oriented individual do a case study
on what
kind of people are attracted to editing on Wikipedia. What
psychological
defects lurk behind the computer screens and the keyboards.
Could we please, please, _please_ try to tone down some of the use of
wildly exaggerated language and hype in this mailing list?
Psychosis means "A severe mental disorder, with or without organic
damage, characterized by derangement of personality and loss of
contact with reality and causing deterioration of normal social
functioning."
As in schizophrenia.
It does _not_ mean a difficult person, a jerk, a bastard, an arrogant
adolescent, etc. Nor does it mean a person obsessed with an ideology
and a pitbull determination to inflict it on everyone.
I'm no psychologist, but in my fifteen years as a USENET participant,
I have perhaps _twice_ seen postings that I thought might, in fact,
actually have been made by someone suffering from schizophrenia. I
have yet to see anything similar on Wikipedia.
Words _do_ have meanings.
We don't diagnose people, we go by their behavior. Some of the behavior we see is
symptomatic of mental illness. This mailing list is for the purpose of discussing the
problems we see, one of which is a variety of disruptive and grossly unproductive
behavior. Out solution is to address behavior problems, not to diagnose and treat. As to
schizophrenia, most schizophrenics have trouble getting online or participating when they
get there. That's why they are not seen.
Fred