[WikiEN-l] cancelation of the deletion review of the satanism userbox

Thu Jun 1 01:13:45 UTC 2006

On 5/31/06, Steve Summit <scs at eskimo.com> wrote:

> But.  On the other hand:
>
> If you honestly believe, in this society, that there is no
> difference between saying "I am a Christian" and "I am a
> Satanist", you are either being wilfully ignorant, or disruptive
> to make a point.  And it's exactly this sort of wilfulness,
> disruption, and point-making that gives rise to big problems
> with those seemingly silly, unimportant userboxes.
>

There's a difference between "they're the same" and "we should treat them
the same".

This kerfuffle is not about anything related to comparative religious
studies or social aspects of Christianity and Satanism. It's about
consensus-less WP policy being applied starting with the tiny relatively
defenseless minority.

If the action would likely result in Tony's being desysopped if applied to
say the Christian userbox, then perhaps he shouldn't do it to the Satanist
or Zorostrian or other fringe religions, either.  Either the policy is ok,
in which case a blanket application can be imposed, or it isn't, in which
case "getting away with it" by starting with the tiny despised minority
religions is blatantly offensive to me.

I kicked up the ANI not because I object to T2; I object to a point of view,
selective application of T2.  If it were applied globally to the religious
userboxes, I wouldn't have objected at all.

-george william herbert
gherbert at retro.com / george.herbert at gmail.com