On 4/13/05, Tony Sidaway <minorityreport(a)bluebottle.com> wrote:
Tom Haws said:
> I suggest that
> many, many others like me who have opinions that there is something
> wrong with including images like this also have various reasons to be
> discouraged from participating in debates about the same images. I am
> very sorry that we are absent from such debates, but it just happens
> that they are framed in ways and carried on in places that discourage
> our active participation.
Tom, I often see debates about sensitive issues which suffer from
precisely this dilemma. There was a long debate about pedophilia, for
instance, which the vast majority of contributors were unwilling to
get involved with. And then there have been many different
discussions of where and how pornography, nudity, and violence should
be presented in Wikipedia.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darueber muss man
schweigen.
Tony, Wittgenstein would be embarrassed to see you using that quote in
this context. One of the reasons this debate on the mailing list is
important is that when it comes to propriety, openness, censorship,
obscenity, etc; discussions are often carried on in the context of a
topic, article, or image whose very title and context prevent many
people from engaging in it. "Titanic" is a much more general topic,
and I hope we can widen the participants in this iteration of the
debate.
SJ