[WikiEN-l] Britannica quote of the day (Johntex)

[charles matthews]

John Tex wrote

> Censorship is a scare word that does not accurately describe the internal
> debate over images.  If hte government tells us not to print something, 
> that
> is censorship.   If we decide not to print somethin because of our own
> editorial standards, that is not censorship.

But it could be described as self-censorship - depending on what 'editorial 
standards' we are talking about.

> If we want Wikipedia to be taken seriously, and to be used as widely as
> possible, then we need to hold ourselves to decent editorial standards.

It is taken seriously.  It is used so widely that the servers are constantly 
groaning.

> That might mean taking some very small steps such as putting some content
> behind a spoiler-like warning.  This way, people know that reading the 
> text
> of articles will be school/work-safe, and they can make an informed 
> decision
> to view the images so-tagged.

It absolutely will not do that.  For several reasons.

(i) Once you start on a list of things that might offend someone, you never 
end, as this thread will no doubt demonstrate.
(ii) The article could be edited in the next five minutes, to become 
not-schoolwork-safe.

The only way to do the suggested kid-safe thing is a fork or a distro on 
CD-ROM (say) that has been checked for obvious no-nos.

We absolutely cannot take on ourselves parental/teacher style responsibility 
for the content of a live wiki.  Or of all outgoing links.  No way can one 
give 'protection of minors' warranties.  I don't see this is going to 
change.  We have this in common with the rest of the Web.

Charles.