[WikiEN-l] Personal Attacks Narrowly Defined

Sun Jul 10 06:36:00 UTC 2005

I'd like to get the opinions of the list on the following statement:
"I have never engaged in personal attacks on any editor. Since I don't
know any other editor personally, and know nothing about them other
than what they write here, I don't see how I could make a personal
attack on them even if I was minded to."
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk%3ARequests_for_arbitration%2FSkyring%2FProposed_decision&diff=18451149&oldid=17892671

This seems to say that unless an editor knows another personally, a
personal attack is not possible. Can someone please comment on how
this squares with WP:NPA?

The editor who made the above comment then goes on to describe other
named editors as trolls (a term widely accepted as being a personal
attack), and makes derogatory comments about these editors, stating
that he has "engaged in recent edit wars with these editors".

This particular editor has recently been admonished by the Arbcom to
avoid personal attacks: "User:xxxx is admonished to avoid discourtesy
and personal attacks."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Skyring/Proposed_decision#Adam_Carr_admonished

-- 
Peter in Canberra