On 8/23/05, JAY JG jayjg@hotmail.com wrote:
but if he had posted a list of Wikipedians who he thought were "niggers", I wonder if the consensus for banning him would be stronger. Perhaps the word "kike" doesn't have quite the same taboo quality.
I very much doubt it. None of the people who are arguing against the ban have said anything along the lines of "calling people by racial slurs is ok". Kike certainly comes across as an offensive term to me. Just as bad as nigger.
Also,
how many people here would really monitor his edits,
Hundreds I should think. He's a fucking Nazi for crying out loud!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and actually spend the effort trying to figure out if they were really NPOV, aside from those he has targeted? Finally, as has been pointed out, his failure to significantly disrupt Wikipedia was not for lack of trying.
If disruption was what he wanted he'd follow willy on wheels' example. He wants to correct what he perceives as a bias.
Personally I don't think that Nazis should be banned from Wikipedia simply for being Nazis/White supremacists. In fact, there are at least a couple that I know of who do edit, albeit generally unsuccessfully. As for the rest, in my experience, the complete inability of most of them to abide by policy, or even think rationally and present logical arguments, combined with their typical belligerence, gets them quickly banned anyway.
That said, I think that banning *this particular* user was justified, based on the issues listed above.
I'm fairly sure he would have got himself banned pretty quickly anyway.
I just don't know, by banning quickly we save ourselves a lot of strife, but we do give a kind of legitimacy to some of his claims (in his eyes). I suppose time will tell on whether it was the right thing to do. He might give up in disgust, or he might be so aggrieved by his banning that he comes back to disrupt with a vengeance. Other Nazis may well think it's not worth bothering with Wikipedia or they may be so aggrieved by the banning of one of their own that previously lukewarm to the idea Nazis will come in their droves in the name of justice. We will have to wait and see.
Theresa
Jay.
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