[WikiEN-l] userbox : insanity ?

[Fred Bauder]

I think there is a genuine fear of factions or parties and the host  
of actions which might follow. This was highlighted by what seemed to  
be attempts to organize a Catholic faction. Part of the problem is  
potential escalation. First there is point of view editing, then tag  
team reverting, alerts to other members of the faction. Then imagine  
an arbitration case and we, looking at these folks, make some kind of  
remedy. Then all the usual kicking and screaming and politicing which  
follows what is perceived as an unfair decision follows. Whether an  
administrator enforces the remedy becomes an issue of whether there  
is anti-catholic bias and so on. Arbitrators are googled to see if  
they ever engaged in Catholic or Protestant activity, etc.

Substitute communist or anti-communist for Catholic and take a look  
at the Nobs case for a real life example.

The problem is real, but it is in the context that we not only don't  
want to exclude people with strong points of view but welcome them  
for what they can add to articles which relate to their point of  
view. So I think the problem is not preventing factions but insisting  
that those who share a point of view act responsibly within the  
policies and purpose of Wikipedia.

Actually any Wikipedia project serves as an organizing vehicle for  
factions. We certainly would not want to hamper Wikipedia projects.

Fred

On Jan 9, 2006, at 10:31 PM, Fastfission wrote:

> Should user categories be allowed in general? I don't personally
> have a strong opinion on this (I don't see the problem, personally --
> if people are going to bloc vote, assuming that is the issue, they
> have no problem doing that as it is. All one has to do to find
> sympathetic editors to a given POV is to look at the edit histories of
> contentious articles.) but surely a decision can be reached.