[Foundation-l] Forkability, its problems and our problems

[Robin McCain]

On 8/16/2011 5:00 AM, foundation-l-request at lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
> A couple of months ago three admins of Aceh Wikipedia decided that it
> is not acceptable that they participate in the project which holds
> Muhammad depictions. By the project, they mean Wikimedia in general,
> including Wikimedia Commons. It was just a matter of time when they
> would create their own wiki. And they created that moth or two after
> leaving Wikimedia. And what do you think which project has more
> chances for success: the one without editors or the other with three
> editors? So, while the reason for leaving couldn't be counted among
> reasonable ones, the product is the same as if they had a valid
> reason. And there are plenty of valid reasons, among them almost
> universal problem of highly bureaucratic structures on Wikimedia
> projects.
Politics and religion are the two areas where this problem usually 
occurs. It is perfectly acceptable to present differing POVs if the 
parties involved can find no common ground. They must be respected for 
their differences as much for their similarities. That means that a 
neutral platform such as Wikipedia must be able to host differing 
opinions. This problem was popped up long ago when people of differing 
opinions began altering pages and deleting the work of others. It was 
addressed with implementation of the "edit lock" and frequent monitoring.

An Encyclopedia must be free to present all sides of this kind of issue 
so third parties can come to understand the reasons behind the 
differences.  Refusal to do so moves the platform away from the mission 
statement of neutrality.

Anyone who cannot support this commitment to neutrality is free to leave 
and present their own POV - but they lose that neutral credibility in 
the process of doing so.