[WikiEN-l] Responsible handling of sexual topics

Mon Feb 14 16:49:00 UTC 2005

Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales wrote

> But, consider this restatement: Are we trying to build an
> encyclopedia, or an electronic playpen where annoying trolls can dump
> their porn photos without supervision?

You call that a rhetorical question?

What would be the wiki way?  That's not a rhetorical question, but a real
one.  I suppose if we declare porn (i.e. erotica lacking encyclopedic
content) to be spam, at very least, then we know we hate spam on WP, and we
know we sanction spammers.  That might be the 80 for 20 for this one; and
the wiki way accepts the 80 for 20 first.  We also know that it is policy
that things shouldn't be posted _just_ to make a point about WP.  That
should take out another big tranche.  And so on.  If someone argues for a
sex manual, we say that it is agreed that 'how to' is not WP, but Wikibooks,
if anything.

Does this make sense?  I doubt that we shall ever manage not to offend
anyone.

Charles