Re: [Bug-gne]Right/Wrong if editorship in GNE/Nupedia

[Hook]

Tom Chance wrote:
> > Can it be possible to filter out personal homepages
> > linked in by anyone
> > without editorial?
>
> No. Even if you put in some automated script, it
> couldn't be done because they never work 100%. Even if
> we allow no external links, people will write
> something like "see my page at (three w's).mypage.com"
> and so could get around it. That is why we need a
> moderation system of sorts.
>
> > Or worse: What about articles
> > that will be set on GNE
> > which are strictly demanding that there must be a
> > proprietary copyright on
> > any product on this earth? would this not contradict
> > the gfdl just within
> > it's own reach?
>
> If it was what their article was about, fine. If they
> demanded those rights over the article, they can go
> elsewhere.
>
> > What about pages that state how
> > "useful" it is to kill
> > other people, say everybody not beeing white, or
> > anything. I'm convinced
> > their are quite a lot of folks out there who would
> > try to misuse GNE for
> > their propagnada.
>
> Then we allow it. Their ideas are our propoganda. To a
> Nazi, if I posted an article about how good the
> liberation of Black Americans was, they would see it
> as propoganda. We can't discriminate against minority
> views, no matter how extreme or distasteful. We're not
> another Wal-Mart or Blockbusters.

I can see the appeal of idealism here, but there's a practical difficulty as
well. How would you (and most other people I suspect) feel about an article
which promoted the enjoyment and advantages of pedophilia?  It's fine to say
"it's their opinion and we can't refuse to publish it", but in many
countries material of that nature is illegal, and it's a horribly emotive
issue with the public almost everywhere .. and it's not difficult to see
why.

I honestly can't see GNE surviving many run-ins with the law over material
such as that. If it isn't hosted in a country which forbids it, the
association would do the project immeasurable damage. Anyone who hasn't been
living in a cave has come across politicians clamouring to have the net
tamed because of the three horsemen of the latter-day apocalypse : "drug
dealers, terrorists and pedophiles".

Idealism or not, GNE has to be clearly and publically aware of the dangers
of "publish and be damned".

Paul