On 5/16/2011 12:56 PM, Chris McKenna wrote:
On Tue, 17 May 2011, Stephen Bain wrote:
In this context, applying some sort of 'least
surprise' based approach
to what goes on the main page is simply a reasonable step toward
protecting a person's right to avoid speech they wish to avoid.
But who
defines what topics are acceptable for a "least surprise"
approach?
It's not topics that define how a "least surprise" approach
is applied,
it's the setting and context. *All* topics can be put through a least
surprise analysis. This relates closely to another issue in this debate,
the question of what has educational value. Media have educational value
according to the setting and context in which they are presented. Many
pictures, including very good ones, would completely lack educational
value without some kind of explanation or context of what the picture is
showing.
For the purposes of this kind of analysis, the main page of Commons (or
another project like a particular Wikipedia language) is not a setting
that provides very much in the way of context for featuring a picture.
As a result of this lack of context, it only makes sense that we would
need to exercise a little more editorial judgment than usual in
selecting what pictures appear there.
--Michael Snow