Message: 6 Date: Fri, 5 May 2006 12:51:07 +0100 From: "Tony Sidaway" f.crdfa@gmail.com Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] We need to recognize that advocating is a basic right To: "English Wikipedia" wikien-l@wikipedia.org Message-ID: 605709b90605050451u54ffec61i46939c96b8f8a6e1@mail.gmail.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
On 5/4/06, Fred Bauder fredbaud@ctelco.net wrote:
On May 4, 2006, at 10:10 AM, Tony Sidaway wrote:
On 5/4/06, John Tex johntexster@gmail.com wrote:
This is "advocacy". Contacting people to recruit them to support you or to act according to beliefs you think they may already have should rightly be called "campaigning". This is a Good Thing.
You're on the wrong project, mate.
He's thinking about policy issues and expressing himself in the proper forum. He's being courteous. He may be wrong, but input on policy questions is welcome.
All of the above may be true, but he's still on the wrong project. This is a project for the production of an encyclopedia, not for political campaigning.
Hi Tony,
I thought it was a bit rude of you to essentially invite me to leave the project with your "You're on the wrong project, mate." However, since you're known for your somewhat surly statements and lack of civility, I let it slide. Now that you've repeated your transgression, however, I feel compelled to respond.
I'm here to build an encyclopedia. I hope that my contributions log shows that I have helped to do that. If people disagree, then there are proper channels to go through if anyone thinks I shouldn't be here. I'd thank you to use one of them rather than to make your snide, off-wiki comments saying I'm in the wrong place.
In the meantime, building the encyclopedia requires decisions on policy, as well as daily decisions about how to apply policy to individual situations.
This requires discussion and sometimes debate. That is inherently a political process. Person A will inevitably be trying to convince person B and C that Person A is proposing the correct solution. Sometimes Person A will be successful in bringing B and C around. Sometimes the opposite will happen and A will change positions. Sometimes people will agree to disagree. Etc.
Fortunately, Wikipedia is not ruled by Tony Sidaway, so you don't get to make all the decisions yourself. As long as multiple people are contributing to decision-making, politics is a fact-of-life.
I welcome your continued presense on Wikipedia and I thank you for the myriad contributions you have made to date. I would thank you as well to extend me the same courtesy, even if you disagree with my position.
Sincerely, Johntex