[WikiEN-l] What is "spam?"

Tue Jun 27 03:34:04 UTC 2006

On 6/22/06, Daniel P. B. Smith <wikipedia2006 at dpbsmith.com> wrote:
> > From: "Alphax (Wikipedia email)" <alphasigmax at gmail.com>
> >
> > Nathan wrote:
> >> I remember having an imposter with a weird unicode version of the
> >> first
> >> "N" in my username. In fact, it's my only imposter.
> >>
> >> I think such usernames should be blocked too.
> >>
> >> - Nathan (nathanrdotcom)
> >>
> >
> > I think *your* username is innappropriate since you're spamming
> > your URL
> > in it.
>
> Yeesh. Give him a break.
>
> It's unobtrusive. It's a username, so it never appears in the main
> namespace. It's not a link, so it won't affect his site's pagerank.
>
> And if you look at that site, _it's just a personal website,_ no
> different in kind from a Wikipedia user page.
>
> On the spectrum from where co-opting Wikipedia for commercial gain is
> a ten and obnoxious self-promotion is a one, this is a zero. It's
> about as objectionable as using a username that happens to resemble
> one's email address.
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Yes cut him ome slack. However " _it's just a personal website,_ no
different in kind from a Wikipedia user page." is precisely the
mindset that has led to such tiemwasting poinltess arguments in the
past months. No. your userpage is not your personal webpage. You
cannot write whatever you want, and anyone can touch it, you cannot
cry foul if someone else edits it. It's not for furthering points of
view, political agendas, etc.

Wikipedia's userpages are to organize your wikiwork. Period.