[WikiEN-l] Abusive editors

Wed Mar 9 20:11:41 UTC 2005

Tom Haws wrote

> > Charles Matthews wrote:
> >
> >> Indeed.  Why dice with death and take the moral low ground in revert
> >> wars,
> >> when there is the more satisfying approach of the uber-troll: get
> >> yourself
> >> personally-attacked on the Talk page, and get your opponent (if
briefly)
> >> thrown off the wiki?

> Charles, as humor this is fine.  But the serious sentiment behind it
> troubles me.  Our unambiguous position at Wikipedia is that personal
> violence against trolls is unacceptable.

Off Wikipedia too, I hope.   That was presumably intended as 'personal
abuse'.

> If editors choose to see this
> as an unfair advantage for the trolls, that is their choice.  If they
> choose to let it spur them toward greater creativity and diplomacy, that
> is a better choice.

The underlying point is that editors have to take the long term into
account.  Reverting and being a loudmouth are a kind of territorial
behaviour; what we need are people who see clearly that they have to
outlast, rather than simply see off, the detrimentals.

Charles