[WikiEN-l] BLP - a case study

[Marc Riddell]

> Marc Riddell wrote:
>> Respect is something which cannot be legislated or regulated; it is part
>> civility and part empathy - the ability to respect another being should be
>> built in to us all.

on 3/29/07 6:09 PM, Stan Shebs at stanshebs at earthlink.net wrote:
>> 
> "Should be", yeah. Interesting to ponder how it is that we have
> thousands of editors who seem to lack a great many human qualities. My
> cynical theory is that an encyclopedia that *anyone* can edit is going
> to attract a disproportionate number who would never be accepted into,
> or have been ejected from other kinds of collaborative projects; and
> because one of our fundamental principles is to assume good faith, we
> are slow to get rid of those that are simply not ever going to be a net
> positive.
> 
> Stan
> 
We are, once again, in the area of the Wikipedia culture.

And, once again, we are asking the question: What is Wikipedia? Is it a
free-for-all romp, or a serious attempt to collect and report facts that
truly advance our knowledge and understanding of, and appreciation and
respect for, the subject? For the sake of this argument, let's assume the
latter.

Assuming good faith is a noble quality (and I mean that sincerely, not
sarcastically). And, when WP was young and had a much smaller group of
editors, with very similar beliefs and set of ethics, this worked. However,
today this is, apparently, not the case. This then requires a greater
control of the behaviors of these editors ­ a control that may have been
unthinkable in the beginning. Today WP is full of guidelines regulating the
behavior of its editors. And these guidelines evolved out of necessity ­ as
both the Community and the Project grew.

We cannot regulate a person¹s values or beliefs - nor should we try. But we
can and should regulate that person¹s behaviors when it affects the
Community as a whole.

Adding gratuitous, disrespectful text to a person¹s Article is a behavior ­
and is especially cheap and destructive when that person is no longer alive
to refute it. And it needs to be made an intrinsic part of the WP culture
that adding such crap to an Article is unacceptable. This junk should be
deleted every time it is encountered. And, perhaps over time, those who
insist on adding it will give up and move on to a culture where this
behavior is acceptable.

How do we know which behaviors are disrespectful? As Justice Potter Stewart
said of pornography: ³I know it when I see it.²


Marc Riddell


-- 
* Practice random acts of kindness. *