[WikiEN-l] This is an interesting one or even more userbox stuff

[Steve Summit]

geni wrote:
> [[User:MarkSweep]] then deleted the nomination...
> [[User:MarkSweep]] then proceeds to block [[User:CFIF]] (the
> nominator) for 48 hours...
> He wasn't warned. We treat outright vandles better than that.

If that's what really happened, this is starting to really suck.
I hate to sound like I'm siding with the userbox weenies (and I
hate to use terms like "siding with" at all; factionalism is
precisely what we're trying to *avoid* here), but I have to
agree with the sentiment that this campaign against divisive
userboxes is ending up being more divisive than the userboxes
themselves.  WP_IAR is one thing, but using it to quash
dissenting voices in a retaliatory way (and especially when what
the voices are dissenting against is a perception of that very
kind of highhandedness) is a sure sign of incipient corruption,
repression, and regression.  We shouldn't be acting this way.

When Jimbo made one of the userbox-motivated-factionalism-is-bad-
for-the-project statements which some admins are now hoisting up
on pennants, I think he explicitly mentioned that he didn't want
to see it get used as a battle-standard for a reign of terror.
I don't know what all's going on over at TfD, but I would urge
the admins to be as scrupulously diffident and fair in all of
this as, for example, we expect editors to be when grappling over
the POV issues in an article.

					Steve Summit
					scs at eskimo.com