[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia article on [[Santorum (neologism)]]

[Andreas Kolbe]

--- On Wed, 25/5/11, Fred Bauder <fredbaud at fairpoint.net> wrote:

> > As mentioned before, what is at the root of this is a
> wider problem
> > though:
> > to what extent we as a project are happy to act as
> participants, rather
> > than
> > neutral observers and reporters, in the political
> process.
> >
> > I'd say that neutrality is our best bet here, as
> anything else is likely
> > to
> > come back to us eventually. We should not make *undue*
> efforts to promote
> > political or social campaigns.
> >
> > There is little in present policy to address this.
> WP:Activist is an
> > essay.
> >
> > Andreas
> 
> It is addressed at:
> 
> Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not#Wikipedia_is_not_a_soapbox_or_means_of_promotion
> 
> One of our key policies.
> 
> "Advocacy, propaganda, or recruitment of any kind:
> commercial, political,
> religious, sports-related, or otherwise. Of course, an
> article can report
> objectively about such things, as long as an attempt is
> made to describe
> the topic from a neutral point of view. You might wish to
> start a blog or
> visit a forum if you want to convince people of the merits
> of your
> favorite views.[1] See Wikipedia:Advocacy."
> 
> Again, this is NOT rocket surgery.
> 
> Fred


Maybe I should have said there is little to "effectively" address this.

In my experience activists of either bent violate WP:Advocacy (and WP:BLP)
for years with impunity (cf. global warming). Each side having POV 
supporters, there is never any consensus at ANI etc. that a violation has
actually occurred. 

It usually goes on for years, until the matter goes to arbcom and swathes of
editors from both sides end up topic-banned.

Our consensus-forming process, which is effectively modeled on a chat-show
phone-in, rather than thoughtful and team-based analysis, does not help 
here. 

This is why the outcome of arbitration is frequently so different from what
the community does on its own. Ideally, it shouldn't be that way, but the
only people I've ever seen implement WP:Advocacy are arbcom.

Andreas