[WikiEN-l] Jimbo and his strategy

[geni]

On 2/20/06, Jimmy Wales <jwales at wikia.com> wrote:
> I want people to ask slowly and thoughtfully with deep respect for
> others, even others with whom they disagree.  As far as I can tell,
> there is a strong consensus that having various sorts of advocacy
> userboxes is problematic, especially when they are promoted in the
> Wikipedia namespace as if they are a normal and proper part of Wikipedia
> culture.

No there isn't. More correctly no one seems to be sure how to define
advocacy exactly so any possible consensus would be a moot point


> I think it is somewhat problematic to have users pasting bits of cruft
> on their userpage which make them seem to be engaged in Wikipedia as
> activists for a particular POV.  I think users should realize that
> having that sort of cruft on their userpage will quite rightly diminish
> other people's respect for you and your work.  But, whatever, if people
> want to do it, I see no reason to get absolutely draconian about it.
>

It someone admits a POV it makes it much harder for them to push that
POV. I fail to see a problem with this

> However.
>
> The current situation with these things being in the main Template
> namespace, and promoted as if healthy and normal in the Wikipedia
> namespace, is that they are damaging to our culture.  They are
> attracting the wrong sort of people, and giving newcomers the wrong idea
> of what it means to be a Wikipedian.
>

I haven't really seen it. Most of the problem users I've run into
lately are the same type I was running into over a year ago. Most new
users settle down and edit quietly away. There will always be a few
who cause problems.


> That's why they need to go.  Not to censor people's self-expression, but
> to make it clear that _as a whole_ the community considers these things
> to be divisive and inappropriate.
>


The community doesn't. Bits of it do but at the last count bits of the
community considered the following to be divisive and inappropriate:

Userboxes
Deleting user boxes
IRC
You
Me
[[Brian Peppers]]
[[Image:Jyllands-Posten Muhammad drawings.jpg]]
[[WP:CVU]]

I think getting rid of that lot would be a mistake
--
geni