[Foundation-l] Blog from Sue about censorship, editorial judgement, and image filters

[MZMcBride]

Tom Morris wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 30, 2011 at 18:24, Theo10011 <de10011 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Bishakha, call it editorial-content, call it censorship or any other
>> euphemism - at the heart of it, it is deciding what someone gets to see and
>> what not. It should not be our job to censor our own content. The strongest
>> argument I read against this has been - it is not something WMF and the
>> board should implement and develop, If there was a need to censor/cleanse
>> graphic content, there would a successful mirror or a fork of the project
>> already somewhere.
> 
> That argument is all too convenient.
> 
> The WMF shouldn't do X because nobody else has successfully done X.
> 
> And the only reason nobody else has done X successfully is because
> they don't *really* want it.
> 
> (Not because they actually do want it but don't have the resources.
> Not because it is hard for an external body to do but might be easier
> for the WMF to do. No, those aren't possible at all.)

Can you explain how investing resources into an opt-in image filter is a
good idea? What's the virtue of such a project? Does it serve Wikimedia's
mission? Does diverting resources from other projects and activities in
favor of this one do more harm than good?

I think it makes more sense to focus on these questions, rather than
inventing silly tales.

MZMcBride