[WikiEN-l] Arbcom has completely lost its mind

[Peter Mackay]

> From: wikien-l-bounces at Wikipedia.org 
> [mailto:wikien-l-bounces at Wikipedia.org] On Behalf Of Matt Brown
 
> On 2/8/06, Jay Converse <supermo0 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > This is what I'm worried about, and the precedent I was 
> mentioning.  
> > All of a sudden, userpages now need to be politically 
> correct, or you 
> > risk a block.  That is, if this precedent does get set.
> 
> You don't have a userpage in order to exercise any "right" to 
> free speech, but because it helps the project; it aids 
> communication and makes people happy.  You never did have the 
> right to say anything you pleased there; disruptiveness has 
> always been unacceptable.
> 
> There's nothing particularly new about that proposed finding.

A common example is that while you have a right to freedom of speech, you
don't have the right to shout "Fire!" in a crowded cinema.

If something on a userpage cause disruption and offence, then it should be
removed. After all we are a community, and sometimes small individual
freedoms get sacrificed for the common good. This is going to apply to any
community above a certain size, and I would find it hard to imagine any
community similar to this one where putting an "I am a paedophile" poster up
on your front door is not going to provoke righteous outrage from a fairly
large proportion of the community.

If the community, through the ArbCom, decides that a line has to be drawn,
then we should accept it. We can discuss the precise location of the line,
but I still think it needs to be drawn.

Pete, walking a fine line