[WikiEN-l] Worst. Userbox. Ever.

[David Gerard]

Someone created {{User pedophile}}. While almost anyone would think
this was created as a vehicle for trolling and personal attacks, the
creator actually did create it for the purpose of finding and blocking
paedophiles from editing, since *of course* they would put it on their
own page.

Someone went "wtf" and killed it. Then someone else RECREATED it. Then
it was put on TFD. Then someone else killed it. Then someone else
recreated it *because it was in the process*.

A sample of the depths of Wiki discussion can be found at:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:AN#Blocking_self-identified_pedophiles

What happens is that really really stupid ideas get floated and
discussed, but people who aren't stupid avoid the discussions because
their brain will fall out if they try ... so then the people who like
the stupid idea consider they've formed a 'consensus' amongst all
those interested, and think it's the will of the community to push the
really stupid idea.

I think we really, really need a Wiki Stupidity Patrol to go to really
dumb discussions and attempt to inject sense into them.


- d.