[WikiEN-l] HD DVD key and the spam blacklist

[Mark Gallagher]

G'day Todd,

> There's a -tremendous- difference between tolerating spam and leaving
> it in an article where it's appropriate. I'm 100% for stopping any
> spamming campaign. But if someone were spamming a link to the NYT with
> "SUBSCRIBE TO THE NYT TODAY!", we wouldn't spam-blacklist it, because
> there are legitimate uses. In this case, there's a legitimate use. And

No, we wouldn't spam-blacklist it because there are better alternatives 
available to us --- like blocking the spammer (singular).  If a mass 
effort occurred, I'm sure the /New York Times/ website *would* be added 
to the blacklist.  This would mean that the /New York Times/ could not 
be referred to in the future, and we could not make changes to existing 
articles containing links to the website unless we removed the link as 
part of our edit.

That would be a Bad Thing, but bearable for a brief period.  We have the 
capacity, and I think the will, to do it, if spammers became enough of a 
nuisance to make it necessary (not that I want to encourage you to stuff 
beans up your nose).  By comparison, we could go a week or month without 
publishing the HD-DVD key, while standing on our collective heads.

> the last I checked, child porn wasn't being printed in everything from
> Wired to the New York Times.

You seem to be saying that it would be okay to print child porn if the 
/New York Times/ included a sample in a series on the topic.

> And yes, we -can- cover the topic without using the number, in the
> same way we -could- cover the speed of light without putting what it
> is. But either one would be incomplete. Only one, however, involves
> caving to bullies.

Fuck "caving to the bullies".  That is not, and should not be, a factor 
in our editorial process: "Let's see, can we stick it to The Man by 
doing this?  Cool, discussion over, we'll do it."

I've seen that too often on Wikipedia.  If we include the string it must 
be *only* because it improves the article to have it there --- as David 
has argued --- and not because The Man wants us to remove it --- as you 
have argued.  I should have thought this obvious to anyone interested in 
seeing this encyclopaedia flourish.


-- 
Mark Gallagher
"'Yes, sir,' said Jeeves in a low, cold voice, as if he had been bitten 
in the leg by a personal friend."
- P G Wodehouse, /Carry On, Jeeves/