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Wikipedia cofounder Larry Sanger blocked from editing Wikipedia

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Re: Wikipedia cofounder Larry Sanger blocked from editing Wikipedia

#211

Post by thiht »

afh1 wrote: post #50
wongarsu wrote: post #31

So to summarize: he resuggested "WikiProject Intellectual Diversity", a group with the goal to make "Wikipedia more intellectually diverse" and "ensure fair and open decision-making and governance, broaden the range of permissible sources, reinforce genuine neutrality, rein in over-aggressive blocking while holding the powerful to higher standards of accountability", etc, with the implied undertone of preventing Wiki…

Yes, banned by the status quo for trying to disturb it. Wikipedia is nowadays highly politicized and more time and energy are spent on politics than on actually contributing with any useful knowledge. I've stopped contributing years ago after a decade of writing because of how bad things had gotten. It's a lost battle, all that remains is scorched earth filled with toxic editors trying to push their POV and banning e…

I’ll keep the status quo of rejecting MAGA lies over allowing Fox News as a reliable source any day

Go use conservapedia or grokpedia if you want the lies, no one is forcing you to use Wikipedia, and no one is asking for it to be turned into shit like everything the alt right touches

Re: Wikipedia cofounder Larry Sanger blocked from editing Wikipedia

#212

Post by tim333 »

moralestapia wrote: post #143
spidercat wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe not particularly relevant, but I'm noticing you using "xe" pronouns for Sanger. Why is that? Just wondering if I am missing more context.

Larry Sanger is very clearly a man and has never expressed any desire to be treated differently than that. JdeBP is misgendering him on purpose, which is a very serious offense and even illegal in many parts of the world. We'll see if this is allowed to stay here.

How can you misgender with xe? It's unisex. Although Sanger may not want to be treated as unisex I guess.

Re: Wikipedia cofounder Larry Sanger blocked from editing Wikipedia

#213

Post by mghackerlady »

frankvdwaal wrote: post #178
mghackerlady wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could also be a typo. Unlikely on QWERTY, but if JdeBP uses Dvorak or especially Workman that's more likely than JdeBP going out of their way to misgender a man with an obscure neopronoun

A typo? Twice in the same post? In both places where "he" would normally appear? Localized entirely within your kitchen?

Yeah when I made the comment I only saw the first one. Still don't think it's impossible

Re: Wikipedia cofounder Larry Sanger blocked from editing Wikipedia

#214

Post by rzwitserloot »

pjio wrote: post #22

As an outsider the accusation "Canvassing" seems like a double edged sword. Similar to Reddits "Brigading" but without the hostile intention. It's not clear to me, how Wikipedia prevents this rule from being used inappropriately to silence people.

Let's not conflate these two issues. For this specific case there is absolutely no confusion.

A quote, from his own talk page, written by himself:

> But as of fall 2025, I have returned, with the aim of helping Wikipedia in various ways to reform.

This is somebody who (re)started their wikipedia editor career with one goal in mind, and set up a project to reach this goal, and then canvassed for that project.

There is no doubt about any of those 3 things. Specifically, he wants this project to get accepted, he is not all that interested in anything else, and it was him, himself, canvassing for this project in ways that wikipedia policy clearly delineate are not allowed.

This is specifically what the 'no canvassing' rule was written for. One can make quite a few remarks about how the 'no canvassing' rule can be abused, but this isn't an example case, at all. Quote the contrary: This is a textbook case for why the rule exists, and serves as a trivial slamdunk case as to when it should be applied.

Your point stands as an interesting debate, but it has no meaningful effect on Larry Sanger's banned status. It would have been interesting if, for example, somebody else started this project, and Larry Sanger started canvassing for the project. Banning Larry Sanger as an editor would then be an obvious community decision (banned for canvassing), but do you ban the project at that point? The cat's out of the bag, and, indeed, if you adopt the policy of: "If anybody on any social media anywhere canvasses for project X, then that automatically means project X gets canned without any further vote", then one can trivially can any project by canvassing for it.

But none of that is relevant here.

Re: Wikipedia cofounder Larry Sanger blocked from editing Wikipedia

#215

Post by postflopclarity »

TZubiri wrote: post #208
postflopclarity wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think one of the last straws for me before I quit trying to help is when I "lost" some disputed edit (and the page was subsequently locked) because the original author provided an external citation for their claim. The problem was, if you actually go read the content being cited, it did not at all conclude what the page author was asserting it did. In fact, it concluded the opposite. So the citation was "real" but…

Oh, it does seem like you got way farther than just editing something without a source. It's not easy to make a contended edit, especially against a more experienced editor. Here's a few tips: 1- Don't focus so much on the edit, but focus on the discussion page. As mentioned, edit warring is a no-no. The core of edit warring is the 3RV rule, so if you must discuss through edits, space them out over time to avoid 3RV…

or I could just do something better with my time :/

so much effort all to fix what should be a clear and objective inaccuracy

Re: Wikipedia cofounder Larry Sanger blocked from editing Wikipedia

#216

Post by peppersghost93 »

dotancohen wrote: post #116
mzajc wrote: post #78

I encourage people to read through his proposed WikiProject's page[0] and the related discussion.[1] Important context is also that WikiProjects are exempt from canvassing rules; members are free to notify each other of ongoing policy discussions with the goal of influencing the outcome. This is usually not a problem, but given how aggressively vague the WikiProject's goals are (eg. "We hope to open Wikipedia up to u…

> advocating for whitelisting of sources like Fox News As I understood it, he wasn't advocating for whitelisting Fox News, he was advocating for removing the blacklist. That's a stark difference. > it's not a good look for Sanger either way. What doesn't look good for him? It doesn't seem that he has an intent other than enabling the viewpoint of those other than the far-left, which compromise almost the entirety of…

>he was advocating for removing the blacklist.

Seems like a distinction without a difference to me. If he got his way the website would quickly be overrun with right wing misinformation campaigns. I hope he stays banned.

Re: Wikipedia cofounder Larry Sanger blocked from editing Wikipedia

#218

Post by Hugsbox »

tim333 wrote: post #212
moralestapia wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Larry Sanger is very clearly a man and has never expressed any desire to be treated differently than that. JdeBP is misgendering him on purpose, which is a very serious offense and even illegal in many parts of the world. We'll see if this is allowed to stay here.

How can you misgender with xe? It's unisex. Although Sanger may not want to be treated as unisex I guess.

I'm married to a nonbinary person and not even they like "xe". It's definitely weird to use it for a cisgender person who has never expressed interest in being referred to in that way. It's usually done by people who are trying to normalize the use of "xe/xer" pronouns for everybody, when the fact of the matter is it's clunky and will never catch on, and I've yet to meet an agender person in real life who actually uses those pronouns.

Re: Wikipedia cofounder Larry Sanger blocked from editing Wikipedia

#219

Post by Hugsbox »

IshKebab wrote: post #165
spidercat wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe not particularly relevant, but I'm noticing you using "xe" pronouns for Sanger. Why is that? Just wondering if I am missing more context.

Oh thanks I thought "xe" was some Chinese character in the story that he had forgotten to introduce! How dumb.

Yep. Occasionally people shoehorn it into conversations thinking it's more inclusive (it's not) when in reality it just confuses people unnecessarily.

Re: Wikipedia cofounder Larry Sanger blocked from editing Wikipedia

#220

Post by mghackerlady »

Hugsbox wrote: post #219
IshKebab wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh thanks I thought "xe" was some Chinese character in the story that he had forgotten to introduce! How dumb.

Yep. Occasionally people shoehorn it into conversations thinking it's more inclusive (it's not) when in reality it just confuses people unnecessarily.

at least stallmans "pers" makes sense and is grokable after seeing it a few times
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