[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia as moral tool?

[Fred Bauder]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: William Pietri [mailto:william at scissor.com]
>Sent: Wednesday, June 6, 2007 08:19 AM
>To: 'English Wikipedia'
>Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Wikipedia as moral tool?
>
>Hi, Dan.
>
>Daniel R. Tobias wrote:
>> On 6 Jun 2007 at 00:32:41 +0000, "Fred Bauder" 
>> <fredbaud at waterwiki.info> wrote:
>>
>> 
>> Except for the BADSITES linking policy, which was "arrived at" by 
>> lots of yelling and general bluster, pursued with a pit bull's 
>> ferocity and tenacity, backed up by a bad ArbCom decision despite 
>> ArbCom not making policy or precedent by its own admission, and 
>> further "justified" by its proponents as "representing consensus 
>> because it's what we do", where the "we" in this sentence means the 
>> handful of partisans who intimidate into silence anybody who attempts 
>> to revert their removal of "bad" links by threatening to block them.
>> 
>
>Having tried pretty hard to learn why I should back the proposed 
>replacement for BADSITES and not gotten much info, I share your 
>concerns. It seems like a policy that requires keeping people ignorant 
>of the reasons the policy is good will never get very far here.
>
>However, I'd like it if you could be kinder about this. Although I've 
>never seen a clear explanation of the motivations that drive the 
>policy's supporters, I don't have cause to doubt that they mean well.
>
>William

While occasionally principles from arbitration decisions can sometimes be generalized into policy, they are intended to apply only to the specific case addressed at that time. There are many other possible fact situations not contemplated or considered.

BADSITES was such a clumsy adaption that it is reasonably suspected of being the work of someone who opposed the policy expressed in it. The trolling was highly successful.

Fred