[Wikipedia-l] Re: wikipedia in China

[Jiong Sheng]

> Now... I ask the question. Why would it be shocking to provide a
> """short""" article on this board issue (the closing of the board in
> China) and invite the reader to have further information by following
> external links ?

The problem is no one in a wiki can stop anyone else from editing an
article. A "short" article on any subject, especial those closely
related to the people, would soon be expanded by contributors. And I
don't like the idea of self-censorship too: for a Chinese national
living in Singapore for almost five years, I learn from my own
experiences that self-censorship sometimes can be even worse than
government-imposed censorships: people would just be too concerned if
their opinions or descriptions have "crossed the line", and often
result in more conservative writings.

I think I would accept the result where some of the "sensitive"
articles to be filtered off automatically. These articles would remain
in Chinese Wikipedia, but mainland Chinese would not be able to see
these pages (unless through proxy). It would be much better than
banning the whole site, or periodically blocking us on very "special"
dates. However this is not something that we can decide.

Chinese government is fascist? No, but I believe most Chinese would
want to see a more liberal and democratic China as soon as possible,
though not through revolutions or violence as in 1989.

User:formulax