[WikiEN-l] User categories and the fear of becoming a social network

[Brian Salter-Duke]

I feel, as I said on one deltion debate. that we are being taken over by
puritans who want us to have no fun while we slave away making an
encyclopedia. I am reminded of "1066 and all that":-

Monarchist Cavaliers - romantic and wrong.
Puritan roundheads - repulsive but right.

Back to the grindstone.

Brian.

On Sat, Dec 29, 2007 at 02:51:37AM -0500, David Goodman wrote:
> I glad to agree with Ned on this. Those categories that are used for
> improper purposes can be deleted. There are always a few dozen people
> here trying to conduct their friendships on wiki, and it does
> interfere with the tone of the project--but they are not the majority.
> I myself would never dream of using these, medical, political ,or
> otherwise, but that other people do is their lookout unless they
> actualyl cause harm by it. We need a greater tolerance and acceptance
> of diversity
> 
> another example of well-intended steps being carried too far, instead
> of to a reasonable compromise.
> 
> David DGG
> 
> On 12/28/07, James Farrar <james.farrar at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 29/12/2007, Kurt Maxwell Weber <kmw at armory.com> wrote:
> > > On Friday 28 December 2007 19:05, Ned Scott wrote:
> > > > I'm also confused as to why people seem to think that [[WP:MYSPACE]]
> > > > applies to anything that they don't see as helping Wikipedia.
> > > > Certainly, useless categories should be deleted, but being useless
> > > > does not mean something is being (or is even practical to be) used for
> > > > social networking. It also seems to set people off, in that since they
> > > > are assuming these categories are being used for social networking,
> > > > reasonable arguments that demonstrate wiki-related use will not be
> > > > given proper consideration.
> > > >
> > > > Like I said, a lot of these deletions are dead on, but we're also
> > > > losing a lot of categories that were realistically usable. Should some
> > > > be taken to DRV? Should a kind of "rationale" page be created to help
> > > > avoid confusion? Are any of these categories realistically being used
> > > > for social networking, or are we overreacting? Are babies in lurking
> > > > in the bath water? Is it bath water in the first place? Green or
> > > > yellow? Up or down? Paper or plastic?
> > >
> > > Why do any of them need to be deleted?  What do they hurt?
> > >
> > > I strongly suggest you (and those who agree with you) read [[Wikipedia:Why do
> > > you care?]], an essay I wrote on this subject a few weeks ago.
> >
> > Which is up for deletion, in rather ironic fashion...
> >
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> 
> 
> -- 
> David Goodman, Ph.D, M.L.S.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:DGG
> 
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-- 
          Brian Salter-Duke            b_duke at bigpond.net.au  
               [[User:Bduke]]  mainly on en:Wikipedia.
           Also on fr: Wikipedia, Meta-Wiki and Wikiversity