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

[William Pietri]

Hi, Fred. I understand what you said, but I'm not getting the broader 
point I presume you were making.


Fred Bauder wrote:
>> Fred Bauder wrote:
>>     
>>> I'll never accept linking to personal attacks on Wikipedians. I don't care how futile it is considered to be or how bad such "censorship" is. And it a site makes a regular business of attacking Wikipedians, not criticizing, but attacking, I will oppose linking to the site at all. I can see only good coming out of supporting other editors and only harm coming out of tolerating their humiliation.
>>>
>>>       
>> I agree with the principle -- we should treasure and support our editors 
>> -- but I don't think the rest follows in all cases.
>>
>> For example, I once linked to what could easily be read as an off-wiki 
>> personal attack on me. That was very helpful, as it made the situation 
>> clearer to fellow editors, and resulted in me getting the assistance I 
>> needed. A blanket ban would have made my life as an editor worse, not 
>> better.
>>
>> Rather than making the judgment based on the thing linked to, I think 
>> our judgment should be based on the way we are linking. [...]
>>     
>
> The remedy was applied after a personal attack on MONGO was featured on the Main Page.
>   

Sure. And if people are linking from Wikipedia to a personal attack in a 
way that's itself a personal attack, I agree that's bad.

However, I'm saying that my linking to a personal attack on myself 
helped me. And further, that there are other legitimate reasons one 
would link to a personal attack, ways that either don't further the 
attack, or actively diminish its power.

I'm just saying that one proposed version of the rule, "Never link to 
attack sites," can sometimes harm attacked editors rather than helping them.

William