[WikiEN-l] Please, no more personal attacks

[The Cunctator]

On Wed, 2003-05-14 at 20:45, Tony Wilson wrote:
> The Cunctator wrote:
> 
> > I'm just hoping Wikipedia doesn't significantly factionalize--or rather,
> > stays in factions of one. I'm mildly disturbed by the way 172 invited
> > particular people to work on an entry ("Wanted: Tannin, Sluberstien, and
> > Jtdirl")http://www.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Talk:Industrial_Revolution&action=history
> > because I don't see that kind of behavior boding well for the future.
> 
> Knock it off, Cunc. 
> 
> That's quite uncalled for, and I'm getting very tired of your
> relentless sniping on this list. If you had bothered to THINK about it
> for a momemt, you might have realised that the three people named were
> named for a good and obvious reason:
> 
> I have a degree in that field and (before I went into business) used to
> teach it at tertiary level.
> 
> Slrubenstein can also be presumed to have formal qualifications in the
> field (doubtless higher ones than mine) as he too teaches it at
> tertiary level
> 
> Jtdirl has a phD in the field, and teaches it.
> 
> You have a problem with professional expertise? Or are you just making
> trouble?

You don't need to take a rude and abusive tone to argue a reasonable
point. I don't have a problem with professional expertise, though it's
not clear that any of you are particular experts on the history of
technology or economic theory. I do have a problem with elitism,
rudeness, threats, and defensive cliques of likeminded people. 

In my opinion, it takes a lot of naivete to believe that the only reason
172 made an explicit invitation for you and Jtdirl to contribute was
because you have academic backgrounds.

I don't have a problem with professional expertise, but I trust the
evidence of what Wikipedians contribute over what their credentials are.
There are many people in this world with PhDs. The degree, I've found in
my experience, doesn't necessarily amount to much. 

Finally, being an expert historian and an expert encyclopedist--and in
particular, an expert Wikipedist--are not the same thing.

As I've said before when I've bleated negativity or words of caution in
the past: my opinions are honest, but I hope to be proven wrong.

And hey, maybe my judgment is colored by 172 yelling at me, calling me
dense, and threatening banning, and Jtdirl calling me monumentally
arrogant, illinformed, with a poor grasp of the facts, and having a
monumental ignorance of how academic research is done.

But I guess I should bow to their professional expertise.

I'm sorry if I upset you. You seem like an honorable person.