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Wikiproject Wikipedians for encyclopedic merit was started on August 15, 2005 to coordinate and promote standards of encyclopedic merit for inclusion on Wikipedia. This project is intended to coordinate efforts to bring articles to appropriate standards of quality control, as defined by Wikipedia policy and Wikipedia guidelines, to ensure Wikipedia continues to be regarded as the finest source of web based reference material available. See also Wikipedia:Wikipedia as an academic source.
One aspect of encyclopedic merit relates to sexually explicit imagery and language. Specifically if some item of Wikipedia content appeals to only prurient interest as opposed to having encyclopedic value, it is generally preferred to substitute content that has encyclopedic value. The Miller test is illustrative in defining a work as obscene, in part, if it contains "patently offensive [content] and taken as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value" (SLAPS). A quasi-Miller SLAPS test is likely to closely match Wikipedia's meaning of "encyclopedic value."
However, it should be understood that the purpose of this project has nothing to do with censorship. It is merely an attempt to help Wikipedia establish a level or baseline of merit and what constitutes encyclopedic merit. A review of this statement by Jimbo Wales [1] helps us to establish what that baseline should be:
"We don't show full-blown mainstream pornography on the front page of wikipedia as a matter of editorial taste and judgment."
Anyone who is interested in contributing, please sign up below and post any ideas and suggestions on the Talk page. Also, feel free to edit this page and add any articles that need serious work or that you feel require attention below in the Open Tasks sections.
This project has been renamed from a contentious initial name (Wikipedians for decency). Members who have joined, but made ironic comments indicating their distaste for a project under the old title may wish to revise the descriptions accompanying their listing. Likewise, editors who have refrained from joining because of the prior title and mission statement may wish to reevaluate whether this WikiProject is of interest to them.
As of March 5, 2005, Gerard Foley is encouraging people to "Express your opinion about Wikipedia:Censorship at Wikipedia_talk:Censorship#Poll." Johntex\ talk 20:13, 5 March 2006 (UTC)
Moved to Wikipedia:WikiProject Wikipedians for encyclopedic merit/Members.
Current policies:
Guidelines (not policy):
The mechanism designed to support 'content labelling' on the Web is PICS. This is feasible from a technical point of view, PICS is supported in IE and other browsers and is technically viable. Implementation in Wikipedia might require some code updates but this could probably be made painless by creating a special type of category linked to a PICS header.
Deployment of PICS would in a good faith world allow for labelling of potentially disturbing content in such a manner that would make it easier for Wikipedia to be used in schools. It would also allow for automated detection of certain types of vandalism, an attempt to add a pornographic image to a random article could be flagged.
The problem with PICS is that it is likely to be abused. PICS is a censorship scheme (no matter what the promoters claimed). I think it is reasonable to control content that might be used in a classroom. I don't think it is reasonable, sensible or even desirable to attempt to control what teenagers view at home. Furthermore, the tagging of images would likely be seen as POV and warred over for many borderline cases.
In the USA material with "serious literary, artistic or scientific purpose" is generally free of exposure to obscenity prosecution. Recent legislation in the USA has reintroduced the concept of "indecent" content or content "harmful to minors". While Wikipedia is not (and should not be) created or maintained to meet the latest laws of some particular jurisdiction, it is hosted on United States soil, and we would like to understand the areas where legal restrictions and encyclopedic merit intersect.