[WikiEN-l] One reason why Wikipedia is not presently classroom-safe

Wed Feb 23 08:36:29 UTC 2005

 --- Tony Sidaway <minorityreport at bluebottle.com> wrote: 
> Christiaan Briggs said:
> >
> > To use a browser as you suggest defers ALL images. This way defers some
> > images.
> 
> That is true, and that is precisely the problem.  In my opinion deferring
> *all* images is the only way that is consistent with NPOV.  *You*, as an
> editor, cannot know which images *I* want deferred.

I don't think selecting only some images would be POV at all, but simply
pragmatism. Consider that Wikipedia also engages in "primary topic
disambiguation" -- that is, if there's a subject that needs disambiguation, and
it's considered that one topic is much more likely to be searched for than
another under that name, then the name points to the primary article. For
example visiting [[NSA]] leads to [[National Security Agency]], not [[National
Scrabble Association]].

The real reason we do primary topic disambiguation is for the user's
convenience: to save clicks (on average). Sometimes people misinterpret it as
judging "the most important" topic -- it's not; it's simply a convenience
feature for the reader.

I think there's an important parallel here -- what page goes at the page name
is judged (imposed!) by Wikipedia editors. Some readers might well be looking
for the [[National Stuttering Association]], but some editors have decided
that, on average, it's very likely you're looking for the article on the US
intelligence agency instead. This isn't imposing a Point of View, but making a
common-sense, heuristic judgement about which topics are popular and which or
not. Sometimes this can even lead to heated debate, but nobody would accuse
Wikipedia of censorship just because an extra click is needed to get to the
page on the [[Neurological Society of Australasia]].

To me, judging whether an image is very likely to be offensive is no different
a process than the pragmatic decisions made when using primary disambiguation:
we're seeking to minimise user inconvenience amongst competing concerns.

Matt

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