[Foundation-l] Astonished by the so-called principle of least astonishment

[Ryan Kaldari]

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, Teofilo<teofilowiki at 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_astonishment&oldid=7719182
>> [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.
>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l