[WikiEN-l] wtf.

[David Gerard]

On 10/10/06, Alphax (Wikipedia email) <alphasigmax at gmail.com> wrote:

> Note however that due to a lack of "humor" he may not be comprehensible
> by 'Merkins.


FLORIDA, Tuesday (Wikinews) — In a move to enhance the civility of the
editing environment on top-10 collaborative social networking site
Wikipedia, sarcasm has been banned from all Wikipedia editing spaces
as incivil.

"I was voicing my strong disapproval of a bad policy, as it was
obvious that the proponents were absolutely acting as Hitler would
have," said editor Harrison Bergeron. "Then they started quoting
Uncyclopedia article web addresses at me! Even after I'd alerted them
to their violation of Godwin's law! Well. That sort of thing is
unacceptable. It creates a bad working environment for everyone. We
obviously needed a new rule immediately."

Wikipedia God-King Jimbo Lear was quick to back the move. "We already
have a guideline against stupidity, which actually worked to abolish
all stupidity on Wikipedia and therefore removed any reasonable
motivation editors may have had to resort to sarcasm, even in cases of
extreme provocation, as all editors are now extremely clueful and on
the ball."

The move has been hailed in vigorous, blunt, strident, robust and bold
tones by many Wikipedians.

"I must say, I'm glad I have this rule to helpfully point out to those
rude assholes whenever they tell me that some say that critics hold my
writing to be excessively verbose, convoluted, overly redundant and
also tautological as well," said an editor who deleted his name from
the original version of this page. "They should just shut the fuck
up."

Wikipedia User:JSwift1729 was quick to add important proposals against
other antisocial behaviour on the wiki, such as smarminess, passive
aggression, satire and humour. Humor is also under consideration.
"It's really helpful that we can change people's thoughts, opinions
and behaviour by changing text on a policy page," Swift modestly said.
"We're also looking into banning smarty-pants, people who assume bad
faith by saying that a deletion nominator needs to learn about the
world outside Google, and people who make the grossly offensive
personal attack of saying that Michael Crichton novels and Rush
Limbaugh radio shows aren't as good reference sources on global
warming as peer-reviewed scientific papers. And it's against
neutrality, too. After we're done with them, we'll be taking on the
people who think they're better writers than others."

Some have resisted the changes. "Fortunately," said Bergeron,
"edit-warring the policy page back to my consensus version put paid to
them. Edit-warring is considerably less damaging to editing than
saying something someone thinks is mean. Your rights end where my
feelings begin. We're building a social networking site here."

==Sources==

* Harrison Bergeron "Mommy! He was *mean* when I called him a Nazi!".
WT:BLP, October 8, 2006
* Harrison Bergeron "No, really! *Really* mean! Punch the *shit* out
of him, Mommy!". WT:CIVIL, October 9, 2006


http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/UnNews:Online_encyclopedia_Wikipedia_bans_sarcasm


- d.