[Foundation-l] Anti-ACTA protest tomorrow in Belgrade and blackout of Serbian Wikipedia

[Nathan]

On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 1:20 PM, Marc Riddell <michaeldavid86 at comcast.net>wrote:

>
> I agree with you, Yaroslav, that repeated and indiscriminate use of the
> method would dilute its impact; and could come back to bite the Project.
> But
> I think it unwise and unfair to put a flatly negative spin on the idea.
>
> Marc
>
>
I was actually against both the Italian blackout and the subsequent
blackout of en.wp. I don't think a reference work (which is what Wikipedia
aims to be) should take political positions. A core pillar of the project
is its neutrality; neutrality underlies our articles so that they, and by
extension the project and its participants, do not take and aren't seen to
take a position on content.

There ought to be a distinction between advocacy by the Foundation and
advocacy by content projects, in the same way we wouldn't expect Britannica
to argue its point of view in the pages of its encyclopedia but wouldn't
blink if it filed a legal brief or wrote to a lawmaker.