David Gerard wrote:

Can I just say this is a brilliant idea, per Bruce Schneier's paper on this style of security:

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/02/cya_security_1.html

My proposal is not a "security" proposal. (Maybe Jimbo's scheme is.) It's a proposed policy stating clearly that Wikipedians are expected to be honest. David evidently thinks this is absurd and unnecessary. I would have thought so myself until I saw the parade of people defending deception as acceptable in the case of Essjay on grounds such as "he had to do it to protect himself from all the wackos on Wikipedia" or "he only did it on his user page" or "I like him, so it's okay."

I would also like to propose new rules in a similar vein, since (thankfully) you can in fact change people's thought processes by altering text on a policy page:

• Don't Rob Banks And Send The Money To The Foundation To Make A Point
• Don't Kill Your Fellow Wikipedians And Eat Their Brains To Make A

Point

We don't need rules to cover either of these situations, because fortunately every civilized nation on earth has already enacted rules in the form of laws. Evidently every legal system in the world is designed by people who are idiots like me. If only they were brilliant like David, they would know that rules don't influence behavior and would immediately repeal their pointless little policies on murder and theft.

• Don't Climb The Reichstag Dressed As Spiderman To Make A Point
• Don't Shove Beans Up Your Nose

We don't need rules against these actions. It's perfectly fine with me if David does them.

-------------------------------- | Sheldon Rampton | Research director, Center for Media & Democracy (www.prwatch.org) | Author of books including: | Friends In Deed: The Story of US-Nicaragua Sister Cities | Toxic Sludge Is Good For You | Mad Cow USA | Trust Us, We're Experts | Weapons of Mass Deception | Banana Republicans | The Best War Ever -------------------------------- | Subscribe to our free weekly list serve by visiting: | http://www.prwatch.org/cmd/subscribe_sotd.html | | Donate now to support independent, public interest reporting: | https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?id=1118 --------------------------------