[Wikipedia-l] Celebrity users

Wed Jan 12 05:18:54 UTC 2005

Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales stated for the record:

> Sean Barrett wrote:
> 
>>use it.  The specific example I used was my colleague Moamar Qazafi.  I 
>>was told most emphatically that because his parents made the mistake of 
>>giving him a name that the parents of the Libyan dictator also chose, he 
>>would not be allowed to edit Wikipedia under his real name.
> 
> 
> You were not told this by me, and there is no policy which would support
> this.  Please don't confuse random emails from I don't know who with policy.
> 
> If there are actual cases of people with real names being barred from
> editing wikipedia due to people being offended by those names, then
> please tell me.
> 
> Otherwise, let's not get hysterical about a commonsense policy, huh?
> 
> --Jimbo

No, Jimbo, I was not told this by you, and I'm not concerned enough to
dig through the mailing list archives and find who did state it (it was
during the Affair of the Throbbing Monster Rooster), but published 
policy can be and is interpreted as supporting this ridiculous position. 
  [[Wikipedia:No_offensive_usernames]] states that "Wikipedia does not 
allow ... Names which promote racial/ethnic/national/religious hatred 
... Fairly or unfairly, the line between acceptable and unacceptable 
user names is drawn by those who find the username inappropriate, not by 
the creator of the name."

There is no exception in the policy for name proven to be real.

-- 
  Sean Barrett     | On the seventh day, the Others noticed
  sean at epoptic.com | what He was doing, and put a stop to it.