[WikiEN-l] Harassment sites

[Charlotte Webb]

On 10/20/07, Durova <nadezhda.durova at gmail.com> wrote:
> The purpose is that it reduces incoming traffic from one of the most
> powerful sources of link traffic on the Internet.  If that discourages
> people from using their sites to intimidate particular editors, then so much
> the better.

I consider arguments based on site popularity/traffic/etc to be
patently flawed. Whatever moral responsibility we wish to assume,
whatever standards of decency we choose to hold ourselves to, should
be based on firm principles, not an ephemeral site rank. That is,
whether we are in the top ten or the bottom ten, actual practice
should not differ. I know I've said this before.

That's my theoretical view on this.

Practical view:
While it has become increasingly obvious that the content and behavior
of other sites can and does affect (for better or worse, usually
worse) the way we operate, the effect of our content and behavior has
on other sites is, how do I say... grossly over-estimated.

Nobody's going to change on account of us. Their goal is, of course,
to denigrate Wikipedia and its key people based on what they know, or
what they think they know, regardless of where the traffic comes from,
and whether or not anyone stops to read it.

They have, unlike us, no credibility to lose. They don't have to worry
about us warning their readers to take their words with a heap of salt
because they are in fact sociopaths, stalkers, crackpots, or lying
sacks of shit. In the extreme cases, they don't have to worry about us
allowing each other to mention them.

You might say they've got it easy. But it's not because "we're above
attacking them back", or because "we're a top ten site", or "we don't
want to help their traffic", or "we don't want to discuss any of their
accusations lest they appear on the first page of Google instead of
the last".

It's simpler than that. It's because it affects us personally, it's
because we have feelings and assume others do too.

It's because, in the end, emotions always seem to trump principle.

—C.W.