[WikiEN-l] The Censorship Lie

Wed Feb 16 21:40:52 UTC 2005

On Wed, 16 Feb 2005 21:22:51 -0000 (GMT), Tony Sidaway
<minorityreport at bluebottle.com> wrote:
> Skyring said:
> >
> > And guess what? If you look at what the general public regards as good
> > encyclopaedias in this day and age, you'll see no Autofellatio, no
> > Goatse, no terrorist beheadings. I suggest that the people who think
> > that such material belongs in a good encyclopaedia are a tiny
> > minority.
> 
> Evidently not, else they would be so massively outnumbered on Wikipedia
> that such articles would be a cinch for VfD.
> 

That is quite an assumption. Perhaps some of us would prefer to forget
about Wikipedia's seedy underbelly, have nothing to do with such
articles (much less VfD them), avoid controversy and raising vocal
objectors.

*   For a start, it's only a minority who get involved in VfD in the
first place.

*   Secondly, it's only a minority who are the most "hard hitting" Wikipedians.

*   Third, it's only a minority who are the most active Wikipedians.

*   Fourth, editors are a minority on Wikipedia, and don't necessarily
reflect the general public anyway (they reflect that section with
Internet access, some free time (quite a lot for very active editors,
or else less time spent doing other things), some decent level of
education (certainly for many active editors))

I really think far too many people here are not in touch with reality,
and ignoring the fact that their views (standing up for the freedom to
have such images) are probably not shared by the majority of people -
and furthermore, many (probably the majority of) people would be
seriously put off Wikipedia by such images.

In all fairness, it is likely that in the world as a whole, the
majority leans towards conservatism. Western liberalism/pro-anarchism
is probably most definitely in the minority.

Who are we putting together an encyclopaedia for? Us or them? Are we
just adding content to Wikipedia for our own gratification, and as
such we wish content to be written as we desire it to be? But by and
large people adhere to policy/guidelines (e.g. NPOV). That is why I
would like to see some self-regulation on this issue. I do not think
Wikipedians can be left to their own devices (as I've pointed out, we
aren't left to our own devices. There are policies and guidelines for
a reason. Without them, Wikipedia would be anarchy)

Zoney

-- 
~()____) This message will self-destruct in 5 seconds...