[WikiEN-l] A request from H. Jonat

[Oliver Pereira]

On Thu, 29 May 2003, james duffy wrote:

> Here's a practical example. We have all being condemning Lir. That could
> rebound on Adam (I won't use his full name here so as not to provide
> another link to his name!)

Adam [name omitted for privacy reasons] is a well-meaning chap who has been unfairly maligned on
this mailing list too many times. There you go. I've just counterbalanced
all the negative things about him on the mailing lists. ;)

> 1. That the list NOT be available to check on google or any search engine.
> 2. That users be discouraged from using their own name. If they don't have a 
> nickname, initials or an unusual spelling of their name should be used.
> 3. We should not use a person's in the title of any messages on the list.

On the contrary - the lists should be kept public, and people should be
encouraged to use their real names. This is a serious project, and I don't
see why people should hide behind silly made-up names to contribute to it.
Hiding one's true identity is arguably against the GNU Free Documentation
License anyway (it says that authors must be listed), and is arguably
contrary to the general Wikipedia spirit of openness and freedom of
information. Besides, if people's real identities are known, they would
hopefully be less inclined to be rude to each other, and to say silly
things they might regret later. :) Your third point sounds good to me,
though, if by that you mean in the context of a personal attack. Personal
attacks are generally best avoided anyway.

Oliver

+-------------------------------------------+
| Oliver Pereira                            |
| Dept. of Electronics and Computer Science |
| University of Southampton                 |
| omp199 at ecs.soton.ac.uk                    |
+-------------------------------------------+