[WikiEN-l] Sep 11 memorial, systemic bias, lunacy in Wikipedians, and other fine topics (was Re: jaygy and indefinate ban)

[Mark Gallagher]

G'day Prasad,

> As a side-note have any of you noticed that the 9/11 Memorial Wiki has
> not been deleted despite ample consensus being achieved towards its
> deletion? Don't you guys feel that there were far greater tragedies
> which occured during the 20th century-like World War 2 or the
> Holocaust or the Nagasaki-Hiroshima Nuclear bombing, apartheid in
> Africa, to name a few? Making such a big deal about the loss of 3000
> lives while fully neglecting much more horrific incidents is a
> shockingly clear example of how America-centric Wikipedia has become.
> I urge someone to please delete this absurd memorial which seems (in a
> way) to place the people who died on 9/11 on a much higher pedestal
> than (for example) the 7 million who were murdered in Nazi Germany.

It may have escaped your notice, but the "9/11 Memorial Wiki" is not a 
part of Wikipedia (IIRC it's on Wikicities, but ICBW).  It therefore 
slots neatly into that segment of the Internet that I like to pleasantly 
describe as "my not-giving-a-fuck zone".  I'm sure most Wikipedians have 
a similar view.  It is *not* our problem, *not* our business, and *not* 
our fault that it exists.  Now, there are good reasons for it to be 
created, and good reasons for it to not have been created.  And it's my 
pleasant duty, as a good (I hope) Wikipedian, to happily Not Give A Fuck 
about those reasons, or indeed any other project on the Internet that 
happens to have the word "wiki" in it somewhere.

You cannot infer anything about Wikipedia from the existence of an 
unrelated project, and I'll thank you not to even make the attempt.  And 
for what it's worth, we are getting *less* America-centric, not more. 
The project began in America, and for a time (with a few brave 
exceptions) was largely American.  We still bear the scars!  But slowly 
we're getting more viewpoints, better spellers, etc., etc.

In a way, it's rather frustrating to have someone from a non-Western 
culture show up and immediately begin behaving incredibly badly, 
screaming about "Zionist conspiracies on Wikipedia" and so on.  We 
*need* editors who don't share the same worldview, but we *don't* need 
lunatics.  Do you think you could muster up some people who can combat 
our systemic bias problem but also wouldn't go flying off the deep end 
and start confusing neutrality with Zionism?  Because that would be very 
welcome.


-- 
Mark Gallagher
"What?  I can't hear you, I've got a banana on my head!"
- Danger Mouse


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