On 3/11/06, Daniel R. Tobias <dan(a)tobias.name> wrote:
On 10 Mar 2006 at 20:25, "David Gerard"
<dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Else you may be blocked or temporarily
desysopped. These tags are
bloody serious, the WP:OFFICE rule is only used in case of actual
problems, and the Foundation handles them as expeditiously as they
possibly can. I expect everyone will piss and moan, but removing a
WP:OFFICE tag is a really really dickish thing to do. So please don't.
Not that I have any intention of doing such a thing... but I still
have some concerns about the whole WP:OFFICE business. Sure, I
realize the necessity for something like that; as long as Wikipedia
and its parent foundation exist as real-world entities rather than
just disembodied Internet phenomena, there will be people in charge
who have bills to pay, legalities to comply with, servers to keep
running, and so on... and, hence, concerns for which their butts are
on the line in a manner not shared by the typical geek just editing
Wikipedia for the fun of it. Nevertheless, in a site which prides
itself on openness and rule by community consensus, having actions
take place unilaterally and secretively goes against the grain, and
should be kept to an absolute minimum.
There's kind of a feel that, if an article happens to offend the
"wrong" people (who have some kind of political, financial, or legal
leverage to use against Wikipedia/Wikimedia?), the Wikipedia Secret
Police can just make it disappear, and community consensus (and all
the Wikipedia pillars) be damned.
We already know that the community is secondary to the goal of
producing an excellent encyclopedia. But is that, in turn, secondary
to some secret corporate agenda held by the Foundation Office?
Blanking articles into sub-stubs and protecting them doesn't seem
conducive to producing an excellent encyclopedia, and doing this
without explanation is not conducive to the community.
--
== Dan ==
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Dan, I think if you actually *read* the policy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Office_Actions you'll see that
it's nothing like the secretive, corporate, anti-Wikipedia,
anti-community type of thing you suggest. It says on the page that it
is a "temporary action to allow us to be kind while we sort out the
encyclopedic way forward". Community consensus won't tell us when
we're in danger of being sued - that's more likely to be ascertained
by the person who's just received the angry email/phonecall - but
community consensus will, as always, be what actually writes the
balanced article in the end.
N'est pas?
Cormac
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