[WikiEN-l] Query admin powers

[Skyring]

On Mon, 03 Jan 2005 10:17:14 -0700, Fred Bauder <fredbaud at ctelco.net> wrote:
> No, you should not shrug your shoulders, but you should also not get into a
> tizzy over predictable phenomena. If you think there "ought to be a rule",
> please go and make one to the effect that rules are to uniformly applied,
> and so on although that is already part of the unwritten rules under which
> the Arbitration Committee proceeds. We'll enforce it best we can, but
> remember the old Russian proverb: "Laws are like spiderwebs, they catch
> flies, not bumblebees."
> 
> I fear I'm breaking a rule now, "Don't feed the trolls."

No, don't stop. I'm glad to hear some frankness, and it's good to hear
two points of view.

Fred, you appear to be condoning rankism - a concept described and
talked about at some length by Robert W Fuller in his book "Somebodies
& Nobodies" - as if it were something like racism or sexism that
happens and we should learn to live with it. I can see the point you
are making, but it's not something I'm comfortable with.

Nas, you are right to express amazement that this is being brought out
in the open. I must confess that I was likewise astonished to see
something like this stated so bluntly and, well, honestly.

I'm new here, and I'm kind of at a loss to know what else to say in a
discussion that I seem to have inadvertently sparked. I must confess
that I had hoped that Wikipedia would be something where if the
absolute truth could not be laid down, then at least, like a reputable
newspaper, all sides of the story could be given proper respect. But
so much of the activity of the site seems to be taken up with trivia.
A couple of weeks ago I looked at one of the pages that dealt with
recent edits and I was perplexed to see that an all-in brawl was being
waged over the clitoris article, of all things! I hadn't imagined that
there could be much dispute over such a thing, but there it is. As I
hastily scurried away from the battlefield it seemed to me that all of
the contestants were male, which perhaps says a great deal about the
level of debate. Perhaps, as Murphy Brown once suggested, the
participants could drop their pants, measure themselves against a
plastic ruler, and sort out arguments that way.

Which brings me back to rankism, I guess!

-- 
Peter in Canberra