[Foundation-l] A dangerous precedent

[David Gerard]

On 30/12/2007, Andrew Whitworth <wknight8111 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I guess I'm not understanding the difference you are using here. The
> bot is translating text from one wikipedia for use in another
> wikipedia, so are you saying that wikipedia content itself is "spam"?
> Or are you asserting (as I assume you are) that this user was trying
> to artificially increase the vo.wikipedia article count to try and
> lend undue credence to the Volapuk language?


That is precisely what he said he was doing.


> A simple assumption of good faith here should prevent us from assuming
> that any of these actions are nefarious, especially if they are
> producing acceptable articles. Assuming good faith would also breed
> tolerance, because we would assume that the articles were being
> created in furtherance of our goals, not as some sort of underhanded
> marketing scheme for a dead conlang.


Except that he said that was what he was doing. I'm not going to
"assume good faith" in the face of a direct statement from the person
about what they're doing.

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_closing_projects/Closure_of_Volap%C3%BCk_Wikipedia


- d.