[WikiEN-l] CSD T1

[Erik Moeller]

On 5/12/06, Timwi <timwi at gmx.net> wrote:
> What on Earth is supposed to be
> harmful about users proclaiming their view on religious or controversial
> topics?

As far as I can see, CSD T1 only prohibits me from creating
[[Template:User thinks religion is an irrational construction of the
mind]], not from putting the same information on my user page without
a template (inside a colored box or without one). It seems more like a
structural measure than a content-related policy. From that point of
view, I find it hard to get very excited about this change. We didn't
even have templates until Tim added the feature to MediaWiki.

Templates are meant for the encyclopedia and its processes. When you
allow highly individual/personal content in the template space, you
effectively encourage userpage policy creeping into the template
namespace, i.e. claims of content ownership and lack of NPOV. As for
the "vote-stacking" and grouping, that issue has two sides, a good one
and a bad one, but I tend to agree that on highly divisive issues, the
disadvantages tend to prevail.

Erik