On 3 Aug 2007 at 08:16:48 +0100, ElinorD elinordf@gmail.com wrote:

It's not possible to hush up this rumour, but it should be possible to create an environment where contributors who have given a lot to Wikipedia and have been harassed as a result can feel that they have the support of the community. Creating such an environment is good for Wikipedia, but I sometimes feel that's overlooked. As one of the MONGO rulings said, "Wikipedia users, especially administrators, will not permit a user under attack to be isolated, but will support them. This may include reverting harassing edits, protecting or deleting pages, blocking users, or taking other appropriate action."

But what happens when Slim and her friends, acting in "solidarity" as encouraged by that ruling, become persecutors themselves, ganging up on people who are critical of or opposed to them, or otherwise are perceived as "enemies"?

In the "real world", the categories of "victim" and "persecutor" are far from being completely disjoint, as seen repeatedly in history. The Christians were persecuted and martyred by the Romans, but later gained political power and perpetrated the Crusades and the Inquisition. The Serbs and Croats, the Irish Catholics and Protestants, the Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds, and lots of other sets of groups, have alternated between being the victims of persecution and being the perpetrators of it. Why should things be any different with the personalities and groups on Wikipedia?