[WikiEN-l] Fred Bauder "clarifies" on attack site link policy

[Steve Summit]

I wrote:
>Fred Bauder wrote:
>> Your essay presumes that a parasitic site feeding off us does not
>> suffer lack of oxygen if we don't link to them.
>
> The only way to cut off the oxygen supply of a site like that
> would be to somehow prevent it (i.e. all the people editing it)
> from *reading* Wikipedia.

Actually, I take that back.  The way to cut off the air supply of
trolls (which is a more relevant parasite to be making metaphors
about) is to stop talking about them or acknowledging their
existence in any way.  Now, I take your point, linking to them is
a certain acknowledgement of their existence that they might get
a cheap little thrill out of and that we therefore ought to avoid
doing.  But seeing us wasting all this good time arguing about
policy instead of working on the encyclopedia thing -- they
really love that.  And seeing their name in lights (if only
implicitly) in a policy which seeks to shun and ban them, but
which then generates even more heat as people get unjustly
blocked by inadvertently violating the ban: nothing acknowledges
and validates their existence more than such a ban; it's like
funnelating keg-sized shots of pure LOX.