[WikiEN-l] "I want to at least kill the responsible person."

[Chris Howie]

On Feb 5, 2008 7:57 AM, Ben Yates <ben.louis.yates at gmail.com> wrote:
> That's a reasonable fear.  But I'm convinced there has to be a way to
> assure the less extremist among the petitioners that Wikipedia is not
> *deliberately* trying to piss them off.  I think a little bit will go
> a long way.

Two problems with this:

1. We are not trying to pacify people, we are trying to write an
encyclopedia.  To that extent what people think of us is their
problem.

2. We do not censor ourselves.  This includes opt-in/out mechanisms
that are censorship bearing the form of a reasonable compromise.
There is a reason we did not go this direction for spoiler templates,
specifically because it would lead to doing exactly what we are
discussing right now.

There are plenty of things I'm offended by on Wikipedia.  But you know
what?  I've learned to stay away from them.  I've learned that we're
trying to do something useful here and that the presence of offensive
material does not mean that someone is trying to offend me.  If we
start giving in to demands like this then we obviously do not care
about writing a neutral encyclopedia, we do not care about topic
coverage, and we sure as hell do not care if people walk all over us.

WP:NPOV, WP:NOTCENSORED.  I know that policy follows actions, etc, but
out of curiosity: is there any policy, guideline, or essay that
supports what is being suggested here?

-- 
Chris Howie
http://www.chrishowie.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Crazycomputers