Please sanction RK (reasons) (Was: Re: [Wikipedia-l] Ezra Wax, ultra-Orthodox)

[Jonathan Walther]

On Thu, Oct 31, 2002 at 02:26:06PM -0500, Poor, Edmund W wrote:
>I've gotten some frantic "Talk" from RK claiming Ezra Wax is "vandalizing" the Wikipedia Judaism articls "faster than we can correct" them. He wants me to "ban" him.
>
>I don't think I can do that. Isn't it true that as a sysop I have neither the power nor the authority to ban a signed-in user?
>
>Anyway, I don't see the urgency. The contributor in question isn't malicious; he's just annoying the hell out of RK and Slrubenstein with his POV. It's not like he's using a bot.

In fact, I have just now read through the Ezra Wax changes, and RK's
response to him.  I feel that it is RK's over-blown rhetoric and
accusations of "he's making up lies! he's proseletizing! he's making
pro-X propaganda!" and proclamations that "We won't let you won't get
away with this!" that has caused the fellow to increase his rate of
editorship.  He is trying to get what he sees as some balance into the
Wiki articles on Judaism.  RK dubs this sort of activity as "whitewashing",
"lies", "propaganda", "polemics", and the like.

I really like the approach Ed Poor has been taking.  Most people WANT to
help make Wikipedia the best encyclopedia ever.  With some gentle
nudging, most people learn how to phrase what they say so that other
people will consider it a real contribution.

RK's approach, on the other hand, is alienating people.  But before it
alienates them to the point of going away entirely, it sometimes causes
huge edit wars, and in the heat of emotion, the new contributors aren't
as careful about maintaining NPOV, since they know that RK will come
along and delete their hard work anyway, instead of doing the proper
thing, which is to incorporate the new material when revision for NPOV.

I wish you all well, and hope that we can all together encourage RK to
modify his behavior to something more socially acceptable, that doesn't
alienate everyone who doesn't share his unique views on religion.

Jonathan

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