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

[charles matthews]

"Steve Bennett" wrote

> Widely is not the same thing as seriously. Spam (the meat) sells well.
> Does anyone take it seriously?

WP is quoted by top-quality media sources. That's being taken seriously.

>> 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.
>
> This is one of those arguments I really dislike. "If we try and
> improve things, people will want us to improve them even more, and it
> will never end!"

Well, you are leaping to the conclusion that a subtraction (to appease some 
group offended) is an improvement.

> Look at it the other way. Don't label a page kid safe. Label it *not
> kid-safe*. Then if someone edits the pornographic article to remove
> all the porn, then no harm is done. We shouldn't (can't, really) make
> any guarantees that no kids will be shocked, but hopefully in time,
> people can draw their own conclusions about the level of risk.

More assumptions.  I think parents are more likely to be 'shocked' than 
kids; especially those naive about what one can google for.

>At the
> moment, the risk is high, because a user can easily stumble on
> [[autofellatio]] or whatever.

Not that high, clicking Random Page.  High enough, if you look in the 
sexological categories.

>If all those pages are tagged correctly,
> then the only risk is that someone sticks tubgirl on [[GWB]] for 2
> minutes - a substantially lower risk.

'Only risk'; I think you forget how many sites WP links to. I think you 
forget that interwiki links may (within Wikipedia) take one to pages not 
subject to any scrutiny by us, the English Wikipedia.

>> 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.
>
> You're right. No warranties. But warnings, and the option to "opt out"
> with suitable software. Just like with every other site of which "a
> fairly large portion is pornographic". :)

A fairly small proportion of WP is 'explicit', and little is pornographic.