User talk:Serge Dupouy

Welcome to the Wikipedia[edit]

Here are some links I thought useful:

Feel free to contact me personally with any questions you might have. Wikipedia:About, Wikipedia:Help desk, and Wikipedia:Village pump are also a place to go for answers to general questions. You can sign your name by typing 4 tildes, like this: ~~~~.

(Sam Spade | talk | contributions) 12:51, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Personal attack ?[edit]

Please don't make personal attacks on other Users. This could be the beginning of a process to get you blocked from editing. Rick K 19:45, Feb 10, 2005 (UTC)

The above is actually an official Wikipedia policy by the way, see Wikipedia:No personal attacks. Re: [1] -- Curps 01:36, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

RickK - Okay, sure, maybe I wasn't tactful, but there's such as thing as being too polite, you know? I'm just wondering why Wikipedians don't seem to react as strongly to implied personal attacks and slander. It actually seems more offensive to me to be make attacks by implication (or ommission) than to come out and call a spade a spade. There was more to my post than the awful crime of calling someone "stupid": hoping some people might pick up on that. Besides, it's not like I swore at the guy or anything. But fundamentally I agree: better to civil than hostile. Serge Dupouy 01:43, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Thanks Curps. Where can I find the policy on dealing with fanatical bias? Serge Dupouy 01:43, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

The only policies I can suggest for this are Wikipedia:Neutral point of view and Wikipedia:Dispute resolution.

It may seem silly to crack down hard on someone just for using words like "stupid", but in fact people can and have been blocked from editing for a pattern of doing so. The real reason is not because everybody wants to be super politically correct and hypocritically polite; the real reason is, to make Wikipedia work, people have to compromise... and someone you've just finished insulting is going to be in no mood to compromise. So prohibiting personal attacks is just one of the ways to try to stop edit wars from escalating out of control by not inflaming the emotions of the other party. -- Curps 01:59, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Quote: "the real reason is, to make Wikipedia work, people have to compromise... and someone you've just finished insulting is going to be in no mood to compromise." Good point. You've convinced me. Thanks for acknowledging my concerns about hypocrisy. I would imagine that hypocritical 'sham' edits would be quite common on a site like this (I've seen them elsewhere before).

But remember that if person starts from a false front, and if they really are trying to manipulate the debate, then that person won't be in a mood to compromise in the first place. Assuming the best of people is all well and good, but isn't there also a healthy level of scepticism required as well? I was reacting to what I saw as a sneak attack on somebody else, and maybe I overdid it, but who gets to say "Hold! Enough!" Serge Dupouy 02:21, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

You're right that sometimes disputes happen; it takes two to be reasonable and compromise. I guess "no personal attacks" just tries to avoid adding fuel to the fire in cases like that. Happy editing. -- Curps 03:51, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

-- Ha! Just found something interesting. I guess I should have used this phrasing (of the exact same concept) instead: "I don't know what thought worries me more - the thought that you know what you are doing or the thought that you don't. Either way, I recomment stopping it." -- AlexR 10 Oct 2004 (UTC), in heteronormativity

Please don't add personal remarks to articles, and don't link to the Wikipedia: space from article text. There are much nicer and more effective ways of dealing with POV issues. I recommend polite use of the talk page. In addition to Wikipedia:Avoid self-references you may be interested in Wikipedia:Don't disrupt Wikipedia to make a point. Happy editing. Rhobite 03:36, Feb 11, 2005 (UTC)

Whoops. That was meant to be a hidden reference. Okay, so I put a Wikipedia link on the page: does that really justify removing ALL of my edits? Yet another user who assumes from my comments that NOTHING I have added might possibly have any value.