On 03/07/07, Slim Virgin slimvirgin@gmail.com wrote:
On 7/2/07, The Mangoe the.mangoe@gmail.com wrote:
The NYT case is excessive; but it only sticks out because IAR steps in and says that nobody can take erasing all links to the NYT seriously. It's OK to erase links to any crticial site because people can say these sites are bad and get away with it. In the case of TNH the story that her blog was an attack site couldn't be seriously sustained-- but it didn't stop someone from trying.
The person who did that got upset because he was outed, and he reacted badly, which he later admitted. It was a very human response, and it's unfair to keep on using it as a weapon.
Um, no. I keep mentioning it as an example of the idiocy your proposed attitude leads to. In the best of faith. As such, it is relevant and I'll keep mentioning it because it is relevant. That it counts against your position is not a reason to suppress all mention of it.
What we're talking about is very simple. We have a bunch of people who volunteer their time because Wikipedia's a cause they believe in. That's not a bad thing to do. Therefore, don't make their time here an abject misery. Criticize them by all means. But recognize the line between fair comment and hurtful attacks that humiliate them. And don't do anything on Wikipedia that could put them in harm's way in real life.
So remove the links that are in fact personal attacks.
Arbitrary blocking for linking at all - as has just been happening - is beyond the pale.
For me, it's a no brainer that that includes not linking to websites that *make a habit* of humiliating their targets. It's very sad that a simple attempt to be decent triggered so much baiting and an unkind breaching experiment.
For me, it's a no brainer that linking at all to a site deemed an "attack site" by (in actual practice so far) any administrator at any time will lead to a block ... is stupid and damaging to the encyclopedia and its community.
- d.