As you probably know, the Wikimedia Foundation plans to introduce some form of image filter for dangerous, arousing, cultural unacceptable etc. pictures on their projects. As I and several others have already written, the German (and the French..) community are not happy about this. And while some things at the Board seem to change and Sue Gardner wants to come to Germany in November to talk, the general principle "image filter on all projects" still stands.
Now there are two different developments. A user had the idea that everybody should put a white paper bag on his/her head when Sue comes, as a sign of protest. But since Sues visit will happen some weeks in the future, it sparked a virtuel protest. More than 70 wikipedians now have the White Paper Bag on their user page, most of them long time contributors, admins etc. And the number is still growing. I must admit, the image filter unites the German community in a way that I haven't seen in several years.
In a related development there seems to be some conflict growing about the distribution of donations coming from Germany. So, at the page Wikipedia-Fork we now discuss whether we actually could fork, what it would cost, what it would mean, and whether it is reasonably possible at all.
7 Kommentare:
Putting a bag on your head is exactly the childish behavior that Sue expects. How about considering argument from both points of view to find a common solution?
Right now we still have the announcement that an image filter will be introduced on all projects. As long as this announcement stands we do not have an open debate.
jakob: due to the fact that it seems not to be an open debate at all people decided to have fun instead of getting depressed
"the image filter unites the German community in a way that I haven't seen in several years"
Admins and Diderot-Clubbers sign under the same headline - thats what I call a really, really fascinating effect of psychological reactance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactance_%28psychology%29 )
Das entscheidende Argument ist das Geld. 1. Die Wikipedien und ihre Schwesternprojekte leben wie ihre Verantwortlichen der Foundation längst nicht mehr von den Spendengeldern der User, sondern von Sponsoren. 2. Großspender haben immer eigene Interessen, in der Regel wirtschaftliche. 3. Die Internationalität der Wikipedien fördert deshalb logischerweise die Kontrolle der Contents. 4. Die Bilder bieten sich als Content an, weil sie unabhängig von der Sprache auf der ganzen Welt "verstanden" werden. 5. Der ungefilterte Erhalt der Contents ist dadurch zu gewährleisten, dass deren Wirtschaftlichkeit als höher dargestellt werden kann als deren Zensur.
Anonym,
hast Du dafür zufällig auch Zahlen oder Indizien, oder setzt Du jetzt einfach mal auf Verdacht auf deutschen Antiamerikanismus?
Superbass,
just wait until the fork, and until the first sysops will be elected there - that will be the end of harmony :-)
dirkfranke,
das ökonomische Denken und dessen Mechanismen dürfte überall auf der Welt gleich sein; "deutscher Antiamerikanismus" liegt mir fern. Mir waren lediglich die mir seltsam herbeigeholt erscheinenden Begründungen von der Frau Gardner aufgefallen (Würde der Frau, religiöse Rücksichtnahmen etc.); hinter derlei vermute ich gern handfestere Interessen. Mag aber sein, dass ich da ganz falsch liege und die WMF das alles wirklich nur gut meint...
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