My attention being caught by the sitenotice to the image hiding referendum, I came to read the 29 May 2011 board "Controversial content" resolution [1]. And I was astonished. I have two main criticisms.
A) The principle of least astonishment was one compound in a set of balanced principles, limited to a very specific scope: the management of redirected titles [2]. It was not meant for contents other than titles. I am afraid the WMF board is adulterating a good limited principle into a broad obscurantist ideology. I am afraid some people will read "content (...) should be presented to readers in such a way as to respect their expectations" as meaning that they are entitled to censor anything that does not fit their preconceived ideas.
B) Is there a philosopher aboard the plane ? Did-it not occur to anybody in the board that astonishment and knowledge are synonymous ? If you are against astonishment, you are against knowledge. Learning is about being astonished. When you are told again something you already know, you are not learning. When you are told something important you did not previously know, you are astonished. If you believe that the Earth is the center of the world, and Galileo tells you that it is not, you are astonished. Galileo raised a controversy and his theory was a controversial content. In Plato's dialogues, the master never stops astonishing his students [3].
[1] http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Controversial_content [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Principle_of_least_aston... [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_method
On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 10:20 AM, Teofilo teofilowiki@gmail.com wrote:
My attention being caught by the sitenotice to the image hiding referendum, I came to read the 29 May 2011 board "Controversial content" resolution [1]. And I was astonished. I have two main criticisms.
A) The principle of least astonishment was one compound in a set of balanced principles, limited to a very specific scope: the management of redirected titles [2]. It was not meant for contents other than titles. I am afraid the WMF board is adulterating a good limited principle into a broad obscurantist ideology. I am afraid some people will read "content (...) should be presented to readers in such a way as to respect their expectations" as meaning that they are entitled to censor anything that does not fit their preconceived ideas.
B) Is there a philosopher aboard the plane ? Did-it not occur to anybody in the board that astonishment and knowledge are synonymous ? If you are against astonishment, you are against knowledge. Learning is about being astonished. When you are told again something you already know, you are not learning. When you are told something important you did not previously know, you are astonished. If you believe that the Earth is the center of the world, and Galileo tells you that it is not, you are astonished. Galileo raised a controversy and his theory was a controversial content. In Plato's dialogues, the master never stops astonishing his students [3].
[1] http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Controversial_content [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Principle_of_least_aston... [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_method
The principle of least astonishment was not invented by Wikipedia for the purposes of redirects. Its a fairly well known design principle. It is not a principle of pedagogy, and I think you are misunderstanding the meaning if you believe it could have anything like the effects you describe.
Teofilo, I think you're looking at the wrong Principle of Least astonishment page. You should look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_least_astonishment not http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Principle_of_least_astonishment
At the time the resolution was passed, there was much discussion of the importance of providing appropriate context for controversial content. Some of the problematic situations that were discussed included potentially offensive images in unexpected categories or being featured as Picture of the Day. One specific example that was cited was the fact that the category "People using vacuum cleaners" on Commons at one time included nothing but photos of nude women using vacuum cleaners. Technically, it was correct categorization, but it was certainly astonishing.
Ryan Kaldari
On 8/17/11 7:45 AM, Nathan wrote:
On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 10:20 AM, Teofiloteofilowiki@gmail.com wrote:
My attention being caught by the sitenotice to the image hiding referendum, I came to read the 29 May 2011 board "Controversial content" resolution [1]. And I was astonished. I have two main criticisms.
A) The principle of least astonishment was one compound in a set of balanced principles, limited to a very specific scope: the management of redirected titles [2]. It was not meant for contents other than titles. I am afraid the WMF board is adulterating a good limited principle into a broad obscurantist ideology. I am afraid some people will read "content (...) should be presented to readers in such a way as to respect their expectations" as meaning that they are entitled to censor anything that does not fit their preconceived ideas.
B) Is there a philosopher aboard the plane ? Did-it not occur to anybody in the board that astonishment and knowledge are synonymous ? If you are against astonishment, you are against knowledge. Learning is about being astonished. When you are told again something you already know, you are not learning. When you are told something important you did not previously know, you are astonished. If you believe that the Earth is the center of the world, and Galileo tells you that it is not, you are astonished. Galileo raised a controversy and his theory was a controversial content. In Plato's dialogues, the master never stops astonishing his students [3].
[1] http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Controversial_content [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Principle_of_least_aston... [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_method
The principle of least astonishment was not invented by Wikipedia for the purposes of redirects. Its a fairly well known design principle. It is not a principle of pedagogy, and I think you are misunderstanding the meaning if you believe it could have anything like the effects you describe.
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B) Is there a philosopher aboard the plane ? Did-it not occur to anybody in the board that astonishment and knowledge are synonymous ? If you are against astonishment, you are against knowledge. Learning is about being astonished.
I do not have to personally view "santorum", mixed lubricant and fecal matter, either personally or in an image to understand the subject thoroughly. Neither do you.
There are exceptions of course, but there has to be more than mere nastiness.
Fred
On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 6:20 PM, Teofilo teofilowiki@gmail.com wrote:
B) Is there a philosopher aboard the plane ? Did-it not occur to anybody in the board that astonishment and knowledge are synonymous ? If you are against astonishment, you are against knowledge.
Hello Teofilo,
Imagine I open http://en.wikipedia.org, and see a large photo of penis instead of the main page. Am I astonished? Yes. Do I learn something? According to you, yes. Am I against knowledge if I oppose penis photos instead of main page? According to you, yes.
--vvv
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