[WikiEN-l] Rick

Mon Jun 20 16:56:09 UTC 2005

Ambi wrote:
> ... While double standards are not a good thing, 
> sometimes discretion is really useful. Blocking a really good 
> and long-term contributor over a one-off 3RR violation is 
> madness. If it happens a few times, then that may be 
> justified, but else it just serves to infuriate and 
> potentially encourage them to quit the project.

I think double standards are an excellent idea, but not the way Ambi
means. 

They're not good when you hold others to a higher standard 
than yourself, of course, as when political POV pushers excuse torture
and mass murder when carried out "for the sake of the cause" but profess
to despise it (for its own sake) when carried out by "opponents of the
cause".

But it's good when one holds *oneself* to a higher standard than you
demand from others. One of the reasons I'm so popular around here is
that I've always assumed that I should strive, and be judged by, a
higher standard than anyone else here. Call it pride, if you like, but
who's the most successful Mediator we have? And how many NPOV disputes
have I permanently settled?

[cringes while tomatoes and dead cats are thrown]

Let's stop all this fussing about who's allowed to do what and get back
to the actual work of this project. I don't give a dry-eyed duck about
B.C./A.D versus BCE/CE or centre/center or Danzig/Gdansk or how
disgusting a photo we can upload "informing" our readers about [[human
feces]]. All that childishness does is distract us from real work.

Uncle Ed