[WikiEN-l] WP:COI violation

Sat Nov 11 20:31:58 UTC 2006

On 11/11/06, Ken Arromdee <arromdee at rahul.net> wrote:
> On Fri, 10 Nov 2006, Ray Saintonge wrote:
> > Asking someone to "avoid" participating does not imply disallowing that
> > participation.  It only warns them that this sometimes leads to
> > conflicts.
>
> Any ordinary person reading this in a straightforward way would take an
> instruction to "avoid" doing something as a statement that it is not
> allowed.
>
Yes, if what is really meant is that it's perfectly OK to participate
in a deletion discussion over a company you work for, but that we want
to "warn [people] that this sometimes leads to conflicts", then the
page should be rewritten to warn people that "this" sometimes leads to
conflicts, not to tell people to "avoid" "it".

'Cause I've always taken "avoid X" to mean "try not to do X", and I
don't think I'm the only one who thinks this way.

And if I were writing the guideline, I'd say "X is encouraged", where
X is "participating politely in a deletion discussion over
yourself/your company/your favorite TV show/anything you know a lot
about.

Anthony