[WikiEN-l] Re: troubled.

Tue May 11 00:52:22 UTC 2004

Anthere wrote:
> We censor pictures of clitoris on the english wikipedia.

I don't agree that our handling of 'clitoris' can reasonably be called
'censorship'.  The picture(s) are right there for anyone to click on
and see.

On the other hand, I'm inclined to agree that the current handling is
perhaps not optimal.

Could we perhaps handle these pictures in the same way?  That is, make
them accessible in the same way, but not randomly plastered all over
the article?

Part of the issue here is that these pictures are of _extreme_ current
importance.  Many people visiting that page will be interested in
seeing the pictures, and rightfully so.

The article in its present state needs a lot of work, of course.  As
an example, there is a series of quotes from George W. Bush about war
crimes *committed by the Iraqis* with the droll suggestion that "These
statements may or may not represent the positions that his
administration will take regarding the Abu Ghraib prison situation."

That statement seems designed to be a swipe against the Bush
administration rather than a neutral assessment of the probabilities.
The reader is invited to imagine Bush plausibly saying "These are war
crimes, but we should excuse them."  It's just editorial.

--Jimbo