[Wikimedia-l] Who invoked "principle of least surprise" for the image filter?

[Andreas Kolbe]

On Mon, Jun 18, 2012 at 3:16 PM, Tobias Oelgarte <
tobias.oelgarte at googlemail.com> wrote:

> Am 18.06.2012 15:06, schrieb Thomas Morton:
> I don't think that we need this argument since the filter can't replace
> parents anyway. But it is a constant part of the discussions with various
> exaggerated examples that can be seen in bold at Jimmys talk page even
> right at this moment. For example:
>
> "Wikipedia helps me teach my children about the world in a safe, clean and
> trustworthy manner. Free from bias, banter, commercial interests and risky
> content."[1]
>
> [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/**User_talk:Jimbo_Wales#UK_law<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Jimbo_Wales#UK_law>



The issue there is that on the one hand, the Foundation's fundraising
materials advertise Wikipedia as being God's gift for children, especially
underprivileged children, through official fundraiser "stories" like these*:

"Wikipedia helps me teach my children about the world in a safe, clean and
trustworthy manner. Free from bias, banter, commercial interests and risky
content."

"Wikipedia has been a wonderful recourse for my children and me to learn
new terms, knowledge, and culture background as an immigrant family. It is
a safe and trustworthy website for children to do their research."

"Thanks to websites like 'Wikipedia', children of all ages can continue
their endeavor in learning."

"We are a family that live in the interior of Brazil in a very poor state.
We have opened a learning center and work with local children from nearby
villages. Wikipedia is INVALUABLE for this work."

"I worked for a non-profit in India and even the poorest children who were
receiving education there knew about Wikipedia and were familiar with the
site."

So that's one half of the story. The other half of the story is that the
community says the exact opposite: Wikipedia is not for children, but for
adults, and only a moron or a bad parent would let their children go on
Wikipedia unsupervised. Go figure.

Andreas

* http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Stories2/en