[WikiEN-l] Strawman attacks on recent proposals

Mon Jun 6 23:35:03 UTC 2005

Robert wrote:

>Sean writes:
>  
>
>>I am very worried that we are seriously discussing the
>>formation of a committee empowered to prohibit unpopular
>>content from Wikipedia and to ban those that feel that it
>>is important to record it.
>>    
>>
>I strongly object to this strawman attack - which borders
>on an ad homenim attack - on the discussion of improving
>Wikipedia.
>
Why is it ad hominem to raise serious concerns?

>Folks, we still have a major problem. There are many people
>here who unfortunately refuse to cite sources, engage in
>original research, write things that are just false and
>bizarre.
>
With more insistance of citing sources the other two might just fall 
into place.

>For years many of our best contributors have been driven
>away due to these problems, and the Wikipedia leadership
>has done little to address the core problem: While we
>enforce rules about "playing nice", virtually no one
>attempts to seriously enforce our rules and policies on
>citing sources, verifiability, and just plain making sure
>that our articles do not contain flat-out bullshit.
>
Viewed in isolation saying that something is "flat-out bullshit" is just 
another POV.

Ec