[Foundation-l] Letter to the community on Controversial Content

[Andreas Kolbe]

> From: David Levy <lifeisunfair at gmail.com>

> > > In an earlier reply, I cited ultra-Orthodox Jewish newspapers and magazines
> > > that refuse to publish photographs of women.  If this were a mainstream
> > > policy, would that make it "neutral"?

> Please answer the above question.



NPOV policy as written would require us to do the same, yes. In the same way, if no reliable sources were written about women, we would not be able to have articles on them.



> > You said in an earlier mail that in writing our texts, our job is to

> > neutrally reflect the real-world balance, *including* any presumed biases. I
> > agree with that.

> Yes, our content reflects the biases' existence.  It does *not* affirm
> their correctness.



By following sources, and describing points of view with which you personally do not agree, you are not affirming the correctness of these views. You are simply writing neutrally. Do you see the difference?

Images are content too, just like text. By following sources' illustration conventions, you are not affirming that you agree with those conventions, or consider them neutral yourself, but you *are* editing neutrally, i.e. in line with reliable sources.

Just as an idea, if we want to gather data on what readers think of our use of illustrations, we should add a point about image use to the article feedback template.


Andreas