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

[Ben Yates]

It doesn't have to be show/hide templates; I'm saying we might try
applying the same wiki-style third-way thinking as we apply to content
disputes.

When you strip away all of the politics (I'm as scared of
fundamentalism as anyone), you have a bunch of people with hurt
feelings (and, interspersed among them, a very small number of
complete lunatics, who we can ignore).  There are ways to smooth
things over without compromising our principles.

On Feb 5, 2008 11:14 AM, Chris Howie <cdhowie at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
>
>
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-- 
Ben Yates
Wikipedia blog - http://wikip.blogspot.com