[Wikipedia-l] Wikipedia moderators and moral authority

Mon Nov 11 14:40:06 UTC 2002

>>I have also noticed quite a bit of hysteria from the other side (see
the recent "Lir again" thread).

> Hysteria?  I have to support Zoe here; Lir is a disruptive child, and
she should probably be banned.  

I want to point out a couple of things about this brief interchange. 

First, it is probably not in good taste to call anyone hysterical, as it
implies that the root of mental illness is the uterus.  Freud's misogyny
has no place here, and while I'm aware that words have current meanings
apart from their entomology, it is important to know that the use of
this word will sometimes be deemed offensive.  

Second, labeling Lir as a disruptive child is not particularly
productive.  I think it would better to say that Lir's behavior is often
disruptive, and that the overall impression that this behavior gives is
one of childish stubbornness.

My overall point is that if we are looking to find "moral authority" we
need to think and act in ways which respect human dignity, and which
encourage at least a basic level of kindness and civility.  Sometimes we
will miss out on this because we aren't aware that what we say could be
seen as offensive by others, and sometimes we'll miss out because we
just aren't careful with our wording, but we should always aim towards
the highest level of respect, and be willing to apologize when we fail
to live up to that standard.  

I want to be clear about one thing -- this comment is not directed at
Larry or Erik specifically.  In fact, I chose this exchange because I
think these two cases reflect unintentional and very minor examples of
the larger problem. But I think it is obvious that there is an larger
trend on the whole list toward open hostility and name calling, and it's
not just the most egregious examples which need to stop.  

I believe that the current hostilities on the list are in effect
poisoning the village well.  If this trend continues, the mailing list
will become less than useless because it does more harm to the project
than good.  

Basically, I'd propose that we restate our former agreement to refrain
from "name calling" on the list as well as on Talk pages -- because
"name calling" IS disruptive and childish.  I also think that we should
agree to calmly and collectively point out our disapproval of such
actions whenever they occur.  

Yours
Mark Christensen