-----Original Message----- From: Marc Riddell [mailto:michaeldavid86@comcast.net] Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 08:11 AM To: 'Wiki-EN-L (new topics)' Subject: [WikiEN-l] Freedom of Speech in WP
Hello,
Recently the Mayor of a small town in Texas tried to pass an ordinance making it against the law to use the ³N² word within the city limits. Fine: $500 for each offense.
He went into this believing the ordinance¹s passage would be a slam dunk it wasn¹t. The vast majority of the multiracial citizens of the town protested to such a degree that he finally gave up and abandoned the idea. The citizens' basic argument: what word is next?
I bring this up because, when I first came to WP, the one policy I found most disturbing was the one concerning ³incivility². Most especially the practice of banning (punishing) members of the WP community for using words and phrases considered by whoever made up the policy to be ³offensive². This, to me, made WP free in every thing but speech.
I know this issue has been touched upon several times in this Mailing List just since I started participating in it, but I wanted to speak directly to the policy and its practice at this time.
If a particular word or phrase offends you hit delete and move on.
What are your thoughts and feelings about this?
Marc Riddell
From the same article:
"One thing is clear, however: the uncivil participants are driving away the civil ones. The result is an acceleration of the cycle, and an increasing proportion of hostile remarks."
Fred