On 19/09/2007, Steve Summit scs@eskimo.com wrote:
Armed Blowfish wrote:
...Wikipaedia's lack of concern for its own editors lowers my opinion of the whole project.
You see, this is the part that really sticks in my craw. If something gets proposed that is claimed to "protect an editor from harm", and if I disagree with it, I'm automatically accused of having a "lack of concern".
Firstly, note that I said Wikipaedia, not Steve. Wikipaedia's culture encourages a lack of concern for its own editors. Whenever people go on about how some measure to protect editors would, in some inexplicable way, hurt the project, it shows callousness inherent in the system.
Encyclopaedias do not suffer. People do.
Not at all: I might be (I am) *very* concerned, but merely in disagreement on the usefulness or appropriateness of that particular proposed remedy.
Removing links to psychologically damaging material protects people from psychological damage, to some extent. And it inna a sanction. Yippee!
Not as good as sending a representative over to ask for the material to be removed or whatever, but still.
I have no idea how you think removing links to psychologically damaging material which aren't reliable sources anyway hurts the project, but even if it does, any project which cares about some minor damage that might befall it more than the well-being of its people is doing plenty to hurt itself without any help.
'The chancellor, the late chancellor, was only partly correct. He was obsolete, but so is the State, the entity he worshipped. Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognise the worth, the dignity, the rights of man, that state is obsolete.' -- The Twilight Zone
The apparent "you're either with us or against us" mentality is as shortsighted and divisive here as it is anywhere else.
How many websites manage to spread out their flame wars across multiple websites, many with high Google pageranks?
Wikipaedia is the only one I can think of.
Also, note that I am not a Wikipaedian, so I am not sure who is this us of whom you speak.