[Foundation-l] Image filter brainstorming: Personal filter lists

[Dirk Franke]

> > I think this sounds pretty good. Is there any indication how German
> > Wikipedians generally view an implementation like this? I can't imagine
> > English Wikipedians caring about an additional sidebar link/opt-in
> feature
> > like this.
>
>
>
Actually I think, they do not like it too much. I'll try to explain:

(1) Almost everybody on the German Wikipedia thinks, that the original
problem the filter tries to solve, does not exist. So there is no positive
reason to introduce an image filter.

(2) A strong majority thinks, the principle itself is evil.

So for (1) to accept an filter you would either need a community that
doesn't care (way too late for that one..), or a lot of goodwill by the
community for the foundation. I am afraid as long as the board doesn't
move, there may be more or less infuriated opposition against the filter,
but only a small minority who positively supports it. And I am afraid the
board would have to move publicly enough that even a "I dont care about
meta, I want to write articles about 18th century village
churches"-Wikipedia will notice that move.

For (2) decrease evilness. There are two main reasons why the filter is
considered evil. For one: it may allow third parties to influence the
Wikipedia-experience of readers The personal filter solution deals imho
pretty well with this problem, but still, interference is possible. And
secondly it judges on different values than purely encyclopedic ones. I for
myself think "I don't like it" is a perfectly valid judgement, but that
seems to be a minority position on de.wp.

I think the personal image filter is a step in the right direction, as it
adresses at least one of the three main objections. But still a long way to
go for general acceptance.

regards,

southpark