[WikiEN-l] Brandt unblocked by Jimbo - community support?

[Bill Konrad]

"Slim Virgin" wrote:

> On 4/20/07, Tony Sidaway <tonysidaway at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 4/19/07, Jeff Raymond <jeff.raymond at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Jimmy Wales wrote:
>> >
>> > > I disagree that there is any community consensus here.
>> >
>> > Wow.  Okay.  what do you call the massive discussion, then?
>>
>> Seriously, Jeff, can you look at the conflicting opinions being
>> expressed by Wikipedians who hold one another in mutual regard, and
>> proclaim a consensus on this issue?
>>
> Very few people have posted here or on Wikipedia in support of the
> unblock. There seems to be an overwhelming consensus against it --
> including Brandt himself!

Actually, I thought the responses on this list have been pretty mixed. And I 
suspect a very large portion of the EN Wikipedia community are as yet 
completely unaware of the discussions. I was completely unaware of the 
noticeboard until it came up in this list the other day. I rather suspect 
that, like AN and DRV and AfD, the editors with an on-going interest in such 
areas are a relatively small subset of the Wikipedia universe. I'd be very 
hesitant about drawing any conclusions about a broad consensus based on the 
discussion on such a page.

I think most editors are quite content to edit quietly and have little 
inclination to enter into such a tempestuous thicket of ill-will as this 
topic represents. Of course we can't make any assumptions about what their 
opinions might be on the topic, either way, but when making claims about 
overwhelming consensus, it makes a difference whether it is a consensus of 
participants in a self-selected echo box or an actual cross-section of the 
community.

FWIW, I completely support Jimmy's unblock for the reasons that he has 
expressed. Of course, personally, I'd have no problem with deleting Brandt's 
bio either. He is completely unnotable, IMO. But if there is going to be an 
article about him, he should be able to comment about it on-wiki (provided 
his contributions going forward are done civilly and without being 
unreasonable in pushing a baseless POV).

Bkonrad