[WikiEN-l] Former Wikimedia employee was a felon.

[Steve Summit]

John Lee wrote:
> This is appalling.

Or else it's no big deal at all.  Partly it depends on how you
look at it.

I don't know all the details of this case (and, frankly, I don't
care), but my own opinion is that we demonize convicted felons
far too much.  (I'm speaking of society in general, not the
Wikipedia community in particular.)  We used to have a much more
tolerant and forgiving attitude: once you've served your time,
your debt to society is repaid, and (with perhaps a few exceptions)
you're a free person.  But these days, a felony conviction is an
eternal, everexpanding black spot, and in most cases that's just
wrong: if a felony conviction means that you can't do anything
or participate normally in society for the rest of your life, we
might as well say that all felonies are punishable by deportation
or execution.

> Even if only the broad outline of the story is true, this will
> be a bad PR hit for Wikimedia and Wikipedia.

Well, given the aforementioned trend in society (not to mention
the reaction on this list), yeah.  But it shouldn't have to be
that way, and we on this list certainly shouldn't fan the flames.