[Foundation-l] Cleaning up Wikibooks

Fri Nov 25 22:01:37 UTC 2005

Robert Scott Horning wrote:
> BTW, have you seen the Wikipedia article on [[w:White
> nationalism]]?  Using this same logic, this article on Wikipedia should
> be deleted on the spot and all of the participants banned as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_nationalism

is a perfectly fine encyclopedia article.

But let me give you a few quotes from the "White Heritage Security"
wikibook, and ask you to ask yourself what will happen when a grant
maker who is seeking quality volunteer efforts to fund will think about
our project when they see this?  I want you to imagine the headlines
that would result from us being tolerant of such things...

"Whites may need to create a separate nation to defend themselves from
racial destruction by racial mixing."

"Other races exploit the white race in a number of ways to their detriment."

There's plenty more where that comes from.

Robert wrote:
>>> The user that added this white power book has otherwise done Wikibooks
>>> quite a bit of good, and banning him would only make an enemy rather
>>> than a useful contributor.

I responded:
>> I very strongly disagree.  Wikibooks does not need such books, and it
>> was an is an embarassment to see such a thing.

Robert again:
> So, do you have a personal beef against [[b:User:Zondor]]? 

A _personal_ beef?  Not really, no.  A _professional_ beef?  Absolutely.
 This is a serious project, and we do not need the help of people who
behave in such a fashion.

> The #1 complaint I have here about this whole thing is not so much what
> you've done, but how you've done it, particularly in regard to changing
> policy without really explaining this policy change.

I have not changed policy.  I did change one policy page, but only to
correct something that I think everyone will agree is obviously in
error: "As a general rule, any book you might expect to find in the
non-fiction section of your local library or bookshop is acceptable."

There are tons and tons of non-fiction books which are not NPOV, and
NPOV is, as always, non-negotiable.

--Jimbo