[WikiEN-l] Re: RK, naughty pictures, and how better to flame me

Wed Feb 16 07:13:17 UTC 2005

James Rosenzweig a écrit:

> Regarding the recent brouhaha over the photos, what
> I'll say is this.  If Wikipedia decides as a community
> it will display explicit photos of sexual acts, then I
> won't stop editing, but I'm afraid I'll have to stop
> recommending it to most of the people I currently
> recommend it to (normally families with bright teenage
> children, given my work in a high school).  You can
> call me, my friends, and my acquaintances all the
> names you like (compare us to Nazis, if Godwin will
> let you), but those are the cold hard facts.
> 
> And I have to be honest: I will probably not choose to
> introduce my students to Wikipedia with a class
> project (as I had hoped to do) if the photos are
> displayed inline.  Too many questions to have to
> answer to administrators (real-life school ones)
> about.  Again, you can call us censorious or
> narrow-minded or anything you like, but as long as I
> want to call myself employed, I'll have to live that
> way.  I don't know if you think Wikipedia will lose
> much by my ceasing to advocate it to every man, woman,
> and child I talk to.  I'll let you decide for
> yourself: certainly I don't think it's much of a
> threat in strictly numerical terms (it won't affect
> Wikipedia's pocketbook or editor population by more
> than a few hundred bucks or a few editors either
> direction)!  But it's the reality of the situation,
> and I think all the talk about browsers, etc.
> (frankly, I think 90%+ of our reader population either
> doesn't know how to shut off photos or considers it
> too great a hassle for WP to be worthwhile, but that's
> unsubstantiated guesswork) ignores the truth of the
> situation.
> 
> Noble principles are fine and all that, but even the
> most remarkably open free speech laws recognize that
> there are some kinds of speech not suitable to all
> occasions.  Now go ahead and yell at me -- if you want
> ammo, I use IE and subscribe to Christian moral and
> ethical principles.  I'm sure someone can make use of
> those against me. :-)
> 
> All my best to all of you, who keep my inbox full and
> my brain moving.  I wish you good fortune this cold
> February,
> 
> James W. Rosenzweig

Nod, I entirely agree with you as well.
I am currently in contact with some people to try to see what we could 
do in schools (this would be in Burkina Faso for example). They are 
thinking of "certified" version on cd rom. And when they mean 
"certified", they do not really mean validation, they mean "leaving 
aside content inapropriate for kids".

I cannot really blame them. I do not let my kids freely read the 
encyclopedia as well. Our project is great, and I have no fear with 
regards to a clitoris picture personnaly, but would not want to stumble 
on a severed head, or even worse goatse.

Call me freaking mother, but still, it is hard fact.

Wikipedia with such multimedia ressource is just not for kids. I 
proposed several months ago that we move toward filtering system (a 
parent system to exclude display of certain pictures). Some people have 
already worked something on meta on the topic. I am still interested.
If only, this could be unabled in school.
Right now, with no filter, making a second version with no shocking 
pictures would just take too much time for anyone.
So, unless there is a filtering system which might be unable, I will 
myself discorage use of wikipedia in schools.

Anthere