I was using "useful" in its most basic sense - to mean "capable of being
used at all". That is, in the context of this discussion, avoids the current
situation where there is a risk that the whole encyclopedia (or any other project) is off
limits to certain groups or individuals because they can't satisfy the basic need of
being able to find what they want to read or see easily and safely. I'm not an
advocate of anything more than a mechanism that allows users to express preferences and
use search tools that accurately follow those preferences regardless of what they are.
Personally I'd love to be able to filter fancruft out of searches.
My point is that providing this capability is not censorship and the screams of protest
that it would strike at the core of Wikimedia's mission are ludicrous. It is not
censorship to help a consumer of information find what they want quickly and to avoid what
they don't want. Not providing this capability is censoring the whole of Wikipedia for
people who don't want to risk being exposed to inappropriate material.
Refusing to help meet the needs of these people has an "ivory tower" smell about
it; we don't care if nobody uses Wikipedia as long as it is perfect. This attitude
strikes across the core principle of the movement to make knowledge available to all.
------Original Message------
From: Ray Saintonge
To: neil(a)thebabbages.com
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Image filter
Sent: 10 Mar 2012 00:57
On 03/09/12 6:06 AM, Neil Babbage wrote:
Wikimedia is not supposed to be some kind of exercise
in perfection for perfection's sake. It's supposed to be open, accessible and
useful.
"Useful", like "notable" is another of those words that cannot
be easily
defined. In many otherwise non-controversial articles we have pictures
that do not further the contents of the articles. They may have a loose
connection with the article's topic, but they don't add any information
to the topic. They do, however, break up solid blocks of text, and make
it more readable.
Ray
Neil / QuiteUnusual@Wikibooks