[Foundation-l] On curiosity, cats and scapegoats

[David Richfield]

Hey Milosh,

I think we all say things in private mails that we wouldn't post on
public lists.  If I posted any of a number of my private emails to our
office mailing list I'd be at risk of getting fired.  I think highly
of you, and I'm sure most of the people here do, even when they
disagree with you.

Anyway, to the issue:

I understand the attitude of being against censorship at any costs -
it is a very important fight.  But as H.L. Mencken said:

"Liberty is not a thing for the great masses of men. It is the
exclusive possession of a small and disreputable minority ..."

The thing is, even if a lot of Wikipedia is written by a disreputable
minority, we want it to go to the great masses.  I completely get what
Sarah is saying here: not everyone wants that hard uncompromising
focus on uncensored liberty: it's inconvenient in "polite society".

Sure, the image hiding feature is a compromise, but it's not a bad
one.  It's not intended to remove any images from Wikipedia, just to
allow users to make Wikipedia SFW (or SFL, depending on who you are)
as required, and is totally reversible, so I support it.

-- 
David Richfield