[WikiEN-l] Nazi userboxes

Thu Nov 30 21:37:04 UTC 2006

On 11/30/06, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Nobody was banned for being a Nazi. They were banned for proclaiming
> > it on their userpage. Which is disruptive. You are welcome to edit
> > Wikipedia as a Nazi, or as a pedophile, or as anyone else. You are,
> > however, expected not to use Wikipedia as a platform for proclaiming
> > controversial views.
> >
> > What's hard here?
>
> Is everyone displaying any of the userboxes on these pages
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:GRBerry/German_userbox_solution#Political_parties
> going to banned?
>
> The only reason I can see for treating Nazis differently from anyone
> else is because people don't like Nazis. It boils down to banning
> someone for being unpopular.
>
> If Wikipedia were based in Germany, it would be an obvious ban for
> breaking the law, but Wikipedia is under US jurisdiction, and the US
> doesn't have any such law.

I would assume that the reasoning is that the negative image potentially
created by tolerance of such a user box outweighs any free-speech rights
(besides, wiki under the TOS has set its own limits on free speech as do
most web-based institutions).  Note: this is an attempt at an explanation,
not a taking of sides, so no hate mail.  ;)