[WikiEN-l] cancelation of the deletion review of the satanism userbox

Thu Jun 1 03:00:57 UTC 2006

On 6/1/06, Lord Voldemort <lordbishopvoldemort at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I think he was simply referring to allowing these to reside in the
> Template namespace, rather than simply having the editor write their
> beliefs or preferences on their user page.  I think he's saying there
> is a difference between the two.  Basically right?

Yes.  See for instance here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Userboxes/Religion&oldid=52889031

A project page in the Wikipedia namespace provided a satanist template
(now deleted and under review) residing in the template namespace.

To the outside world (and to me) it thus appears that the Wikipedia
project is providing all users with a facility to label themselves
according to beliefs, and by implication, encouragement to do so.
This is especially problematic with disreputable religions and
pseudoreligions (I apologise if this offends American sensibilities
attuned to First Amendment absolutism) such as Satanism, Scientology
and the like.