[Foundation-l] Blackout at Italian Wikipedia

Wed Oct 5 16:45:21 UTC 2011

2011/10/5 Michael Snow <wikipedia at frontier.com>

> On 10/5/2011 7:03 AM, Domas Mituzas wrote:
> >> The only thing we truly could do is restore read access. But if the
> >> it.wikipedia community really wants to strike, there's very little we
> >> can do to stop them. :)
> > I sure agree with that. There're plenty of ways to inflict pain without
> terminating the service entirely.
> > Editor strike means not editing, it doesn't mean full service downtime.
> When labor unions go on strike, they do more than not show up for work.
> They form picket lines and take other actions designed to obstruct
> activity so that company operations cannot proceed. Taken to its logical
> conclusion, if the Italian Wikipedia community collectively wants to go
> on strike, then what they have done is apply the full range of tools to
> carry that out.
>

Looks like you forget that as exists a right to strike, there is a right to
work. Italian Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.
Yesterday, today? Sure.

> > How do we deal with an editor who starts deleting his contributions out
> of spite?
> In contrast to strike actions, in those countries that recognize the
> right to organize collectively, sabotage and destruction are generally
> considered illegal and beyond the pale of acceptable behavior. Certainly
> we should not support anyone in the Italian community who thought it was
> a good idea to vandalize or delete portions of the encyclopedia as part
> of their protest.

Oh yeah, just like worst actions exist (vandalism) we have to respect
medium-bad (?) ones (blanking the entire site).

> But I don't think someone acting out of spite is a
> good comparison, since it seems pretty clear that this action is not
> being taken out of spite. I am happy to keep my trust in the Italian
> Wikipedia community, that it is in the best position to judge whether
> this protest is needed, what measures are appropriate to the situation,
> and how long to carry on with it.
>
> --Michael Snow
>
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