Re: [Wikipedia-l] Edit Wars

koyaanisqatsi(a)nupedia.com wrote: and something else--I forgot what exactly--that sound very much like a threat. That was the final straw, as it were: Jimbo banned him, and he's been banned ever since (and for good reason!) Perhaps you should quote the entire argument or some context. 24 alleged the first thing Larry Sanger said to him was an attack. The "threat" in context appeared to be rhetorical hyperbole to me. Further, it was stated in the form that people like Larry (clearly referring to his attitudes and prejudices that were being applied to "24", deserved to have bad things happen to them) It appeared to be an angry response to pretty intense steady harrassment in the stacks because some regulars did not like "24"'s material, beliefs, attitude, etc. There appeared to be some rather abrubt deletion taking place. Several times material that I was attempting to NPOV ended with abrubt deletion/erasure of the entire article or content in the middle of my editing. This got extremely irritating to me, I am sure it probably bothered "24". When I erased the biased [software engineering] article in its entirety it seemed to provoke an astonishingly intense reaction from "64" (maveric149) and Lee Crocker. Perhaps they were involved in writing it. Later, when I reviewed this mailing list archive, several "regulars" had started wondering out loud whether they should fear for their personal safety. Quite a leap in my opinion. It clearly escalated the controversy. Perhaps the reason for banning appeared to good to you. To me it looks like "24" was banned because he had interests similar to my own in participating in establishing or modifying the community standards and processes. "24" appeared interested in methods that would support large diverse participation levels. "24" was apparently interested in green issues and other political activism. "24" was interested in establishing community processes that would be compatible or attractive to people who could help fill in gaps in those areas. You say he was banned appropriately in effect, because he would be not nice when Mr. Wales contacted him privately because the "community" complained of his behavior and opinions and good riddance. I say he was banned inappropriately because when he brought up issues of community governance and content completeness and attempted to add his own perceptions to the gesalt he would not quietly roll over when arbitrarily trumped by "long standing respected community members". This appeal to authority persisted along with refusal to engage in any meaningful dialogue regarding how to establish a participatory process. I do not allege that Mr Wales actions were inappropriate but that the "community" created the situation in which the controversy between "24" and others were not resolved amicably. Rather "24"s material and opinions were routinely arbitrarily deleted and dismissed out of hand by long term participants and their cronies. When "24"s provoked behavior got offensive enough, Mr. Wales was called in for totalitarian action and apparently "24" resisted his attempts to exercise a calming influence. The reasons were poor and, in my opinion, do not bode well for the unstated goal of Wikipedia to be a high quality NPOV encyclopedia. The stated goal of 100K articles is quite achievable by a small closed "community", 35K and counting. I wonder if, after passing the 100K mark, I will be able to find anything authoritative, comprehensive, fun, informative, wonderous, astonishing, etc. regarding the Amazon basin provided by native English speakers or translated from the Spanish Wikipedia or if I will have to proceed to the English translation of the Spanish Fork? regards, mirwin [Wikipedia-l] To manage your subscription to this list, please go here: http://www.nupedia.com/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l