[WikiEN-l] Votes for deletion and due process

Tue Aug 19 12:49:12 UTC 2003

Daniel Mayer wrote:
>>a) Most people have their freedom abruptly denied before recieving
>>any notice. Cops show up, say "you're under arrest", and cart them
>>off to jail. The analogy really doesn't work.

> That is talking about probable cause for cops to make an arrest. My
> analogy is akin to providing proper notices to appear in court. The
> analogy is very sound and mentioning cops making arrests is a
> strawman.

I'd like to also add that the entire analogy is strained from the
outset.  Wikipedia is a privately run website.  While the privilege of
editing is extended very generously, Wikipedia is nonetheless *not* a
city park or free speech zone.  No one has an inherent right to edit
on our website, except as authorized by the Wikimedia Foundation.
(Which is *very* generous about this, obviously.)

No one is ever locked up, not even figuratively.  It's a free country,
and people can always take the database and open their own website if
they want, and write whatever they please.

[Actually, I realize that 'It's a free country' is a peculiarly
American, er, United States-ian expression, and I tried to retype it
as 'It's a free world', but that's not really true.  Well, you know
what I mean.]

I just say all this so that people remember that our policies of
openness and due process are policies, not constitutional rights, and
so any discussion of what we ought to do should be founded in the best
interests of the encyclopedia, as opposed to abstract and stretched
analogies to what rights governments must respect in order to be
proper governments.  It isn't the same thing at all.

--Jimbo