[WikiEN-l] Strange fetishes

Fri Mar 4 06:14:24 UTC 2005

Abe Sokolov wrote:

> Quote of the day:
>
> "It is no defense to the 3RR that the information being reverted is 
> false."
> -User:BM
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/3RR#User:Adam_Carr 
>
>
> Runner up:
>
> "I agree that Adam Carr was reverting a completely nonsensical edit 
> (Australia is not yet a republic), but he still broke the 3RR."
>
> -User:Noel
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/3RR#User:Adam_Carr 
>
>
> Think of the warning signs that would alert one to the possibility of 
> groupthink… I still believe that most active users sign up to 
> Wikipedia with the goal of writing an encyclopedia. But over time, 
> their behavior is shaped according to a whole web of relations based 
> on the fetishization and ritualization of the 3RR and other policies, 
> making them lose sight of the goal of writing an encyclopedia.

Actually, IMO at least it seems perfectly reasonable to enforce the 3RR 
even against people who are making reverts that when made in isolation 
would be considered "reasonable." That's because they're not being made 
in isolation, they're being made as part of a revert war.

Making nonsensical edits is a bad thing. But engaging in revert-warring 
is _also_ a bad thing. There are other ways to deal with editors that 
are repeatedly adding nonsense to an article than revert-warring with 
him, ways which I think are better for Wikipedia's functioning.

> If Wikipedia is serious about its goal of creating an encyclopedia, it 
> must develop a conflict resolution process that bans users who make 
> nonsensical edits, not those who are reverting them. If it continues 
> to follow its present path, the only people who'll have the patience 
> to deal with these games will be cultists, LaRouchies, Holocaust 
> deniers, and other random cranks.

And also people who are able to use the other approaches to dealing with 
those people than just robotically reverting them over and over again. 
Let's not try to combat one bad behavior with another bad behavior, it 
doesn't gain anything.