[Commons-l] Fwd: [Gendergap] Photo of the Day on Wikimedia Commons

[Stephen Bain]

On Tue, May 17, 2011 at 5:40 AM, Chris McKenna <cmckenna at sucs.org> wrote:
>
> Actaully, I think it has made the absolutely right choice - to stick to
> it's founding principle of being not censored.

Well actually, the founding principle is giving everyone free access
to the sum of human knowledge, which is not quite the same thing.

> We best respect our end users by doing exactly what we say we will do -
> i.e. provide an uncensored repository of educational and educationally
> useful free media.

Putting some limits on what is on the main page doesn't affect that
goal in any way. Galleries/categories/files on any topic are available
to whoever wants to see them.

Freedom of speech is freedom of speech, not freedom to force everyone
to listen to what you are saying. Just as my right to freely swing my
fists ends at your nose, my right to freely speak ends at your ears.
The necessary corollary of the right to freely speak is the right to
choose not to listen.

In this context, applying some sort of 'least surprise' based approach
to what goes on the main page is simply a reasonable step toward
protecting a person's right to avoid speech they wish to avoid.

-- 
Stephen Bain
stephen.bain at gmail.com