[WikiEN-l] BADSITES redux

[David Gerard]

On 22/11/2007, Steve Summit <scs at eskimo.com> wrote:

> Having followed some (but by no means all) of the interminable
> debate, it seems to me it all boils down to three things:
> 1. If a link in article space is allegedly non-encyclopedic,
>    it needs to be assessed according to WP:V or WP:RS or whatever
>    the sourcing guideline du jour is.
> 2. If a link in non-article space serves to harass a Wikipedia
>    editor, it needs to be dealt with in accordance with WP:NPA,
>    which at times has (and IMO certainly should) treat such links
>    just as seriously as on-wiki harassment.
> 3. If an off-wiki page, not linked to from article space
>    or from non-article space, harasses a Wikipedia editor,
>    it should either be ignored, or dealt with off-wiki.  Nothing
>    we do on-wiki can punish an off-wiki harasser, or force the
>    off-wiki harasser to remove their harassing words from the net.


3. is the one that IMO is most needed. The question is, of course:
will it stand?


> What we truly do not need -- which BADSITES promoted, but which
> some people keep promoting under various guises


These things being considered close enough to call the same by some,
but different enough not to by others ...


> -- is the notion
> that off-wiki harassment of a Wikipedia editor is such an
> uber-mortal sin that we should summarily ban all links to the
> harassing page and/or the harassing site and/or sites that link
> to the harassing page or the harassing site.  These extreme
> sanctions, which involve trampling on various other cherished
> Wikipedia policies and ideals, are what people were so upset
> about with BADSITES.  But the fact that people keep taking about
> (and exercising) similarly extreme sanctions is why BADSITES,
> despite protestations to the contrary, is still alive, whether
> under that name or some other.
> Yes, we need to protect our editors and save them from harm.
> But we don't need to destroy the encyclopedia in order to save them.


Indeed. <-- personal opinion bit


- d.