[WikiEN-l] Freedom of Speech in WP

[andrew.cady at gmail.com]

On Wed, Jan 31, 2007 at 05:53:22PM -0800, Luna wrote:
> On 1/31/07, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
> 
> > One point which for me makes "Be civil" preferable to "Don't be
> > a dick" is that it advocates something that people should be in
> > preference to what they should not be.  It has a more positive
> > outlook.
>
> Besides that, I can't remember a *single* occassion where linking
> [[m:DICK]] has ever done anything to calm a situation down. Of
> *course* the other person is going to be offended, and anyone
> linking this in a heated dispute is a fool to expect otherwise --
> at the very least, get somebody neutral to do the linking. When the
> directly involved (and most biased) parties start giving each other
> dick/civility scoldings, it rarely ever calms anything down.
>
> If we want the level of discourse to be more civil, we must first
> ourselves behave in a civil manner. Nine times out of ten, that
> precludes linking [[m:DICK]] in my opinion.

Besides their relative rudeness as rebukes, there is a substantial
difference between the *meaning* of the two phrases.  "Don't be a dick"
is a far more broad concept, and makes greater reference to motives
and meaning; "civility" is more about style and form.  For example, a
dismissive, one-line response to a carefully considered five paragraph
argument is a "dick move" even if perfectly civil.  An exasperated
ejaculation of emotion may be incivil but is not a dick move--a dick
does not act out of desperation or express vulnerability.