--- Daniel Mayer <maveric149(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
LDan wrote:
Most of those people only thought that others
would be offended. I don't think that if a critical
mass of people think that others will be offfended
by the username, that that user should have to
change names.
Offense is only part of the picture. Equally
important is the impression
people get about Wikipedia by looking at Recent
Changes and page histories.
The page history issue is most important; would a
downstream user want to
list "Jesus is Lord!" as on of the five authors of a
page? How does it make
Wikipedia look when user:Jesus is Lord! is one of
the authors to
controversial subjects such as homosexuality and
religion? That doesn't give
the impresion of neutrality that we want and its
mere presence in RC is an
implicit way to welcome people of that POV while
offending others who don't
share that POV. All just affirmative (bumper
sticker-like) statements should
be banned from user names.
Our contributers have views, all of them. Just because
someone's views are expressed in their username
doesn't mean they should be banned.
If people didn't like wikipedia because usernames
might reveal something about them, then shouldn't I
change my username to something not implying I'm a
child? After all, children, just like christians,
can't write good encyclopedia articles.
And yes, I am very much offended by the user name.
[[User:AIDS kills fags dead]] (if it existed) would
be similarly
"cute."
-- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)
You're offended because someone is expressing that
view? I'm against religion is school, but this is like
telling people they can't say they have a religion
when they're in the classroom. Jesus is Lord! is just
a slogan, and it's not like telling people "You have
to believe in Jesus, otherwise you're going to go to
hell". *That* would be questionable, but this is not.
"AIDS kills fags dead" is expressing a prejudice
against gays, but IMHO "Jesus is Lord!" only
reiterates the central (or at least original)
Christian belief that seperates it from Judaism.
LDan
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