[WikiEN-l] OSINT press release

[Jesse W]

Sigh.  And now for  
"never-attribute-to-malice-what-can-be-explained-by-stupidity,-part 
-2"...

On Jul 6, 2006, at 4:14 PM, Cobb wrote:
> Jesse W wrote:
>> And, for "vandalism", it still is.  For misguided people - it has
>> always been discussion until either the misguided people
>> change their minds or enough other people get fed up, then
>> more or less forceful requests to leave.
>
> There are no such things as page creation vandals?
Of course there are - creating a page is a type of editing, and, like  
all types of edits, creating pages can be done in bad faith with intent  
to damage the 'pedia - that is vandalism.  Typical examples include  
creating pages that say "Joe is gay!", or creating pages containing  
subtle hoaxes - you can't do that accidentally, or due to  
misunderstanding, only by actively intending to damage the 'pedia.

However, many bad pages created are not created in bad faith - the  
people who create them are not vandals.  People who think the  
encyclopedia would benefit from an article on their novel theory of  
history, or their new company, or this fascinating new website they  
just came across - *are* *not* acting in bad faith, and *are* *not*  
intending to damage the 'pedia (although, in fact, they are), and so  
*are* *not* vandals.  You seemed to be implying they were.


>  How
> interesting. Do please expand on this fascinating new
> insight into what is currently happening on WIkipedia?
I just did.  Hopefully you will be able to respond to it with some  
actual attention this time.

Jesse Weinstein