the key distinction is that a method for getting a list of files in a
category is a good thing for many purposes, and is morally totally
neutral. The ethical questions depend on what other people do with the
list, and like all intellectual work, it can be used for ends any
person might think desirable or undesirable. To use it for compiling a
better guide to content than we can do ourselves, for example, would
be a very good end. We might want to restrict people from using it to
a bad end, as suggested by some, by altering our terms of service,
but that would be opposed to our being a free resource in the
expansive sense of free that commons is, and would contradict our
licensing.
The opportunity for an individual to select what images to see,
another proposal, is also neutral.
on the other hand, adding descriptors for levels of suitability set by
or corresponding to those set by outside sources cannot be used for a
good end, but only for the bad end of censorship. And it contradicts
our basic policy that we do not make conclusions about suitability or
truth or other values. There is no reason to actively work to gain a
capacity that can only be used by those who oppose the basic values of
free culture. It's as if we added a capacity to the software to charge
for viewing an article--and that's not even intrinsically wrong, but
it's not a suitable purpose for free software.
David Goodman, Ph.D, M.L.S.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:DGG
On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 7:41 PM, K. Peachey <p858snake(a)yahoo.com.au> wrote:
I've read most of the replies in this thread, And
i think I should
point out a few things out:
* The "omg tagging for any reason is censorship" mentality is a
needless, Yes we tag things presently *shock horror* look at the
currently category system.
* Omg adding this to Mediawiki will destroy Wikipedia.... Currently
Mediawiki is a separate application from wiki and always will be,
Wikipedia is just a site that uses Mediawiki for it's back end. Just
because Mediawiki supports something, doesn't mean it will be
activated (or in the case of extensions, installed) on Wikipedia and
Wikipedia isn't the only site that uses Mediawiki.
** Currently there are two discussions about possible implementation:
A) Bug 982: Is referring to a EXTENSION that provides the
functionality of tagging content (with it's current discussion being
pointed at ICRA) so it has a rating of sorts which can be used by
external sources (AKA filtering companies)
B) The discussion on wikitech-l is currently discussing a way
(either extension or a core functionality) to accurately grab the
contents of a category and provide it in a usable interface so that
again, it can be used by third parties. Currently this discussions has
hardly approached the rating system discussion (who it would be done?
own internal scale? some sort of standard out there?).
* The lesser of two evils, Currently there is no easy way to get a
list of the files (and their file paths) of images contained within a
category, This can be applied for multiple things (bots for example)
but use, the discussion is primarily about a exportable format so a
machine can easily use it. Schools and Filter providers are currently
blocking whole W* projects because there are no easy ways to do it.
Unfortunately the lesser of the two evils is allow a easy way for a
company to get a list of what is contained in a certain category (Eg:
Category:Images of BDSM) and then import that into the filtering
system to block them compared to the whole project.
JUST A REMINDER: The current discussions are revolving around
implementations in Mediawiki as either as a core functionality (like
most of these, being enabled/disabledable) or as a extension, and not
of how to implement this in the WMF hemisphere of projects such as for
example commons.
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