Yes, this is the critical thing. We work reasonably well as a repository of *all knowledge*. As Nathan says, that is still imperfect, but out of scope of this discussion (I'd certainly recommend looking into it though).
We also work quite well as a filter of information. And it is improving this that we are currently discussing. Improving the filtering of information is a critical facet of making it accessible to as many people as possible. If a Muslim refuses to go to Wikipedia because of our image policy - which we (realistically) impose on him - then we have failed in our core objective. @Nathan; > It does that already, in a lot of ways. True, but that is not the intended mission. They day that happens, that is a terrible day. Tom On 9 March 2012 14:06, Neil Babbage <[email protected]> wrote: > > And it misses the point that the purpose of providing knowledge is for it > to be used. Wikimedia projects will be unavailable to those who would > benefit from them if they continue to provide content that is unsuitable or > unwanted with no mechanism for the consumer to control it. > > If you ran a charity store committed to providing educational products > free to all who needed them you wouldn't get many children as customers if > you put hardcore sex products right by the entrance. You also wouldn't > manage to give anything away if nobody could find what they wanted > > Wikimedia is not supposed to be some kind of exercise in perfection for > perfection's sake. It's supposed to be open, accessible and useful. > > > > Neil / QuiteUnusual@Wikibooks > > -----Original Message----- > From: Nathan <[email protected]> > Sender: [email protected] > Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2012 08:50:57 > To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List<[email protected]> > Reply-To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List < > [email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Image filter > > On Fri, Mar 9, 2012 at 5:30 AM, Thomas Morton > <[email protected]>wrote: > > > > > > > Give as a clear message, that Wikipedia/Wikimedia will never assist in > > > hiding knowledge. > > > > > > > The day that Wiki*edia changes its mission from providing access to free > > knowledge to "enforcing our view of knowledge on you", would be a > saddening > > day. > > > > Tom > > > > It does that already, in a lot of ways. As catholic as it attempts to be, > the "knowledge paradigm" that Wikimedia represents is only a small sliver > of the sum of knowledge in the world. That's just one way in which it > enforces its view of knowledge; acceding to or refusing to filter content > in any way is also enforcing a particular view of both knowledge and the > world. It would do both sides well to approach this argument with a little > less arrogance and self-righteousness. > > Nathan > _______________________________________________ > foundation-l mailing list > [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l > _______________________________________________ > foundation-l mailing list > [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l > _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
