[WikiEN-l] JzG's banning Private Musings regarding BADSITES debate

[Steve Summit]

Fred Bauder wrote:
> Here's some more garbage from the page the respected professor linked to:
>
> "The most curious reaction to the news of SlimVirgin's identity was
> demonstrated by the English-language media: apart from personal blogs
> and web forums, not a single word appeared in any of the major media! ...
> Thus, the conclusion: for important Wikipedia articles, the content is
> gradually approaching the official information available from traditional
> sources.  It is more or less understandable who is behind this.
> Everyone must decide for himself or herself whether this is acceptable."

Apologies if I missed some irony somewhere, but: is this actually
garbage?  The stated conclusion is that Wikipedia's content is
"gradually approaching the official information available from
traditional sources."  That's hardly surprising, given our
increasing insistence on reliable sources.  But it does mean that
the "extreme" views may tend to become marginalized.  This may be
a good thing or a bad thing, but it's a fair question, and in the
excerpt presented, it's not clear to me that Professor Black is
advocating one side or the other.

What *is* clear is that Professor Black is putting SlimVirgin
outing theories in the same kettle as JFK assassination theories
and alien spaceship theories.  If you have made a decision for
yourself (as Black suggests you should), and if your conclusion
is that it's acceptable for all three of these theories to be
marginalized, it sounds to me like the good professor agrees with
you (in that three such theories ought to stand together or fall
together), so it's not clear to me why he's now the reigning
poster child for the policy that must not be called badsites.