[WikiEN-l] Accessibility of mailing list archives

[Axel Boldt]

--- james duffy <jtdirl at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Keeping of records and access to them is vital. To too much 
> ''immediate'' access tends to lead to (a) people not being able to 
> be open in a discussion without their words coming back to haunt 
> them or being used outside wikipedia against them (if they were 
> called on the list a rascist, a bigot, a homophobe, anti-semite, 
> anti-catholic, any-woman, anti whatever) (b) playing to the gallery,
> ie., phoney positions being taken up simply for the
 > impression they give if anyone does a google search on someone.

I don't think we have seen any evidence of either (a) or (b)
with respect to the Wikipedia mailing lists.

> That is why organisations 'always' provide
> restricted access to discussions such as those here, usually with a
> time delay mechanism. They universally find that unrestricted access
> blocks free discussion  and prevents, not encourages, free speech.

"Always" and "universally" are factually incorrect. Organizations
comparable to ours, such as the Debian project, KDE, the Free Software
Foundation etc. all keep their mailing list archives open, immediately
accessible and searchable. So should we.

Axel

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