[Gendergap] Meta: Don't be a dick

[Pete Forsyth]

On 3/13/11 10:45 AM, Nepenthe wrote:
> Are we seriously suggesting that women, as a class, are not editing 
> Wikipedia because sometimes editors use naughty words? 

I think what's more likely is that many people (not all of them women) 
get an inaccurate impression about how seriously we take ourselves as a 
project, from an essay titled this way.

Speaking from personal experience, I have generally avoided referring to 
this essay -- even though it's a really important one -- when 
introducing academic audiences to Wikipedia. I've also never pointed it 
out to my mom (who may still be lurking on this list -- hi Mom!) I don't 
feel it would be respectful or appropriate to use this title in such 
contexts.

My own feeling is that this essay, as titled, served a very positive and 
important role in the development of Wikipedia, but that the time for a 
title like that has come and gone. To refer back to the "principle of 
least astonishment", discussed a few weeks ago, would most readers 
expect the title of an essay on civil behavior to refer to a sexual 
organ? I don't think so.

I'd favor renaming the essay "Don't be a jerk." I know that many 
Wikipedians will continue to use the older name, and it's probably fine 
in some contexts. But I don't see the use in the "official" title being 
so provocative.

-Pete