[WikiEN-l] [[Blocking of Wikipedia in mainland China]]: mainspace or not

[Michael Snow]

Andrew Lih wrote:

> On 7/15/06, Stephen Bain <stephen.bain at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On 7/15/06, Matt Brown <morven at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > Wikipedia should avoid gratuitous self-reference, but the blocking of
>> > Wikipedia by China is itself newsworthy/articleworthy, IMO.  We have a
>> > [[Wikipedia]] article, after all - not all self-reference is
>> > forbidden.
>>
>> I think that's a good assessment, and good criteria to use. The blocks
>> have been covered in the major media, and the articles ties in with
>> other articles about PRC internet censorship, particularly [[Baidu
>> Baike]].
>
> Well as someone living on the front lines of Wikipedia access in
> China, I do think moving the article to Wikipedia: namespace is the
> correct thing to do. It's not really appropriate for the main
> namespace. It wouldn't be appropriate for any of these either:
>
> [[Blocking_of_BBC_in_mainland_China]]
> [[Blocking_of_Blogger_in_mainland_China]]
> [[Blocking_of_HRIC_in_mainland_China]]

Why wouldn't they be appropriate? The subject, including the treatment 
of Wikipedia, the BBC, and various bloggers and blogging services, has 
been of great interest to some people and has received considerable 
mainstream media coverage.

It's certainly possible that the article incorporates material that is 
either not neutral or not verifiable. That should be handled by pruning 
it, and if the pruning is drastic enough the article might warrant 
merging. Perhaps to [[Internet censorship in mainland China]] 
(neutrality check: would [[Internet filtering in mainland China]] be a 
better title?). But moving to the Wikipedia namespace is not the 
solution to these problems any more than deleting the article would be.

--Michael Snow