[WikiEN-l] Freedom of Speech in WP

[Luna]

On 1/30/07, Marc Riddell <michaeldavid86 at comcast.net> wrote:

> But, in the context of WP, how does this apply? How does what two people
> say
> to each other on their personal Talk Pages disrupt the Project? For that
> matter, in that two-way conversation, if it is one person flailing at the
> other, can¹t that other person simply not respond? How does what one
> person
> writes in this Mailing List disrupt the progress of an issue being
> discussed? Simply ignore it ­ or, as computer challenged as I am, even I
> know where the DELETE button is :-).


Well, let's offer a counter-example -- suppose one person blanks a talk page
and replaces it with "FUCK YOU." Suppose they do this several times a day.
Suppose they use sockpuppets and various IP addresses to do so. Is this
offensive? Definitely. Is this disruptive? Definitely. I would anticipate
very little disagreement with a proposal to discourage such behavior.

To me, this isn't a black-and-white issue. There's a question of degrees.
Surely not all examples of disruptive behavior are quite as severe as what I
just offered, but once we admit that there *are* cases where offensive
behavior is bad and should be stopped, then it becomes a question of where
we draw the line.

My personal metrics? (1) Is the person acting in good faith? (2) Is the
person helping solve more problems then they help to create? Once we've
answered those two questions, the path to an answer will frequently become
more apparent.

Just my thought.
-Luna