[Wikipedia-l] Censorship and bowdlerization

Wed Nov 13 17:06:32 UTC 2002

Poor, Edmund W wrote:

>I like the idea expressed by Anthere and others of finding a way to shield tender eyes from "adult" stuff. A significant minority of users believe that young people of a certain age should not be exposed to certain materials.
>
>This is totally without prejudice to the debate over whether sexuality is "sinful", just a reflection of the desire of many parents and educators to introduce some subjects step by step, keyed to the maturity level of the learner. 
>
>Someday, we plan to make the Wikipedia available on CD-ROM for schools and libraries that don't have T-1 lines (or the patience to tolerate the "lag" problem). It would be very useful to allow a parent or educator to filter out a few articles such as [[****-piercing]] or [[fisting]] or whatever.
>  
>
Basically, I agree that articles might (should?) be tagged as "adult", 
as long as the default access for everyone is "no filter".
Likewise, as I have suggested long, long ago, and as has been suggested 
again several times, articles might also be tagged with "categories" 
(philosophy, biology, etc.), and by type (biography, city, etc.).
But, if I look at our current interface, it is already loaded with links 
and information *about* the article, not to mention the article itself.

Adding filters, categories, and types might be just too much for the 
average user who passes through our humble site. The "hard core" of 
users/writers would no doubt manage, though.

But, the three options above might be just perfect for the "stable" 
wikipedia version that Larry proposed. Contents there will be controlled 
and checked anyway, so a little categorization on the side will be 
managable to the reviewers. The readers there would see categories and 
filters, but things like editing, talk, and all the tons of links needed 
for an "editable" encyclopedia will not be there, so there's plenty of room.
Beside, we wouldn't want to give a CD-ROM with a current wikipedia dump 
to a school anyway. The reviewed version would be perfect for that.

Magnus