--- On Thu 06/03, Abe Sokolov < abesokolov(a)hotmail.com > wrote:
From: Abe Sokolov [mailto: abesokolov(a)hotmail.com]
To: wikien-l(a)Wikipedia.org
Date: Thu, 03 Jun 2004 11:26:38 +0000
Subject: [WikiEN-l] Response to Jack Lynch
Re: "I don't feel 172 is reliable in regards to contentious
issues"<br><br>Why? Are you able to offer any evidence from my user
history that I have <br>insisted on the contribution of material that is inaccurate?
If so, I'd <br>appreciate it if you brought it to my attention, as I
emphatically oppose <br>the addition of dubious content on
Wikipedia.<br><br>That's what I do. How would you like it if I made that
claim about you on <br>the mailing list? To take this on the mailing list with no
basis for making <br>this claim, in a context that knowingly will diminish a
user's credibility <br>among a wide readership to me is the most debasing form
of attack there is. <br>These kinds of statements might be superficially
"civil" in tone, but <br>they're the remarks that truly do the most to
spread mistrust and animosity <br>among Wikipedia users.<br><br>When I
make off the cuff remarks on talk pages, they're brushed off and <br>dismissed,
as they should be. But the remarks that truly impugn a user's <br>credibility
and integrity aren't. But perhaps that was your point.<br><br>
I have found you unreliable in some areas of politics or history because of your demeanor,
not because of some specific factual inaccuracy.<br> Yours is a matter of POV,
rudeness, and haughtiness, not one of fraud, falsification, or incompetance.<br> I
understand that you feel that your expertise invalidates concerns of POV, or asigns you a
superior intellectual status, but I assure you that you are mistaken.<br> That
being said I have slowly noticed the general quality of your edits, and that gives me some
reason to strive to see past your partisan persona.<br> The spiteful and
uncompromising condescension which I encountered the first time we disagreed was not my
first impression of you actually.<br> You made a fine impression, complimentary and
pleasant when first we spoke, as I was seconding a self-nomination you placed as a
brilliant prose candidate.<br> Jack<br><br>
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