[WikiEN-l] Policy on shocking images (was: Improper sysop behavior)

Wed Jun 15 04:27:40 UTC 2005

On 6/15/05, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell at gmail.com> wrote:
> The question for exclusion should be based on the images ability to
> inform. We should exclude content that has no value to teach.  This
> does not mean we should include every potentially informative image,
> but rather we should select the most informative subset and of the
> remaining equally most informative results we should select the ones
> which best satisfy secondary artistic and editorial criteria.

I think this is the correct approach. There's no problem with having
informative images, even if they are of human faeces. But there's no
reason why we cannot also take into account that certain people have
certain sensitivities, and choose an image that is more appropriate.

The image in question (a particularly sticky-looking poo) was chosen
for its particularly disgusting quality. It was intended to offend,
not to educate. We wouldn't tolerate intentionally offensive prose,
and we should not tolerate intentionally offensive images.

-- 
Stephen Bain
stephen.bain at gmail.com