Re: [Vo]:Wikipedia founder calls alt-medicine practitioners lunatic charlatans

2014-03-26 Thread Alain Sepeda
as a nasty conservative guy, I won't moan too much on that...
however seeing how is consensus on cold fusion , I realize that no
consensus is desirable.

I just read the aricle by jed on titanic and I extracted the part about
Cold fusion critics Morisson and taubes (Huizenga was not cited, was he
serious ?)
http://www.lenr-forum.com/forum/index.php/Thread/183-Jed-Rothwell-makes-a-paralle-between-Cold-fusion-denial-and-Titanic-aftermath/#post362

what I read is incredible.
basic highschool mistakes not spotted by Nobel supporters...

and those toilet paper book are the only one accepted on Wikipravda...




2014-03-26 3:34 GMT+01:00 Axil Axil janap...@gmail.com:


 http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/03/wikipedia-founder-calls-alt-medicine-practitioners-lunatic-charlatans/

 Wikipedia founder calls alt-medicine practitioners lunatic charlatansWales
 to activists who want new rules for Wikipedia: No, you have to be kidding
 me.


 Ars contacted Sanger about the use of his name in this argument, and he
 offered a more nuanced take on the petitioners' request:

 Wikipedia's neutrality policy, at least as I originally articulated it,
 requires that CAM's practitioners be given an opportunity to explain their
 views. At the same time, the policy also requires that *more* space be
 given to mainstream views that are *critical* of CAM, precisely because
 such critical views are held by most medical health professionals.
 ...
 I am as big a defender of rationality, science, and objective reality as
 you are likely to find. But I also think a public resource like Wikipedia
 should be fully committed to intellectual tolerance and the free exchange
 of ideas. That, together with an interest in providing a way to resolve
 disputes, is just what drove me to advocate for and articulate the
 Wikipedia's neutrality policy. I have confidence that if CAM's advocates
 are given an opportunity to air their views fully and sympathetically--not
 to say they should be allowed to make Wikipedia *assert* their views--and
 skeptics are also given free rein to report their explanation of why they
 think CAM is a load of crap, then a rational reader will be given the tools
 he or she needs to take a reasonable position about the matter.

 Putting all ideas on the table--but giving more space to the mainstream
 views and putting less emphasis on the alternative views--might be
 problematic in practice. Requiring that Wikipedia sources be based on
 third-party, published, and often peer-reviewed work is an easy way to at
 least make a passing effort at disseminating high-quality information. But
 how would space be doled out to advocates of alternative theories, who are
 just as certain about the rightness of their ideas as any scientist, if
 that guideline became more flexible? Would they be allowed to present their
 views in a set number of paragraphs? Or as a percentage of the number of
 words written about mainstream theories? Such a setup might be a slippery
 slope to what's been termed false balance, a subject on which Ars has
 written at length 
 beforehttp://arstechnica.com/science/2013/01/false-balance-fox-news-demands-a-recount-on-us-warmest-year/.
 In that scenario, views that have been ignored for a reason are given
 undeserved light to create the illusion of an even playing field.





[Vo]:Wikipedia founder calls alt-medicine practitioners lunatic charlatans

2014-03-25 Thread Axil Axil
http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/03/wikipedia-founder-calls-alt-medicine-practitioners-lunatic-charlatans/

Wikipedia founder calls alt-medicine practitioners lunatic charlatansWales
to activists who want new rules for Wikipedia: No, you have to be kidding
me.


Ars contacted Sanger about the use of his name in this argument, and he
offered a more nuanced take on the petitioners' request:

Wikipedia's neutrality policy, at least as I originally articulated it,
requires that CAM's practitioners be given an opportunity to explain their
views. At the same time, the policy also requires that *more* space be
given to mainstream views that are *critical* of CAM, precisely because
such critical views are held by most medical health professionals.
...
I am as big a defender of rationality, science, and objective reality as
you are likely to find. But I also think a public resource like Wikipedia
should be fully committed to intellectual tolerance and the free exchange
of ideas. That, together with an interest in providing a way to resolve
disputes, is just what drove me to advocate for and articulate the
Wikipedia's neutrality policy. I have confidence that if CAM's advocates
are given an opportunity to air their views fully and sympathetically--not
to say they should be allowed to make Wikipedia *assert* their views--and
skeptics are also given free rein to report their explanation of why they
think CAM is a load of crap, then a rational reader will be given the tools
he or she needs to take a reasonable position about the matter.

Putting all ideas on the table--but giving more space to the mainstream
views and putting less emphasis on the alternative views--might be
problematic in practice. Requiring that Wikipedia sources be based on
third-party, published, and often peer-reviewed work is an easy way to at
least make a passing effort at disseminating high-quality information. But
how would space be doled out to advocates of alternative theories, who are
just as certain about the rightness of their ideas as any scientist, if
that guideline became more flexible? Would they be allowed to present their
views in a set number of paragraphs? Or as a percentage of the number of
words written about mainstream theories? Such a setup might be a slippery
slope to what's been termed false balance, a subject on which Ars has
written at length
beforehttp://arstechnica.com/science/2013/01/false-balance-fox-news-demands-a-recount-on-us-warmest-year/.
In that scenario, views that have been ignored for a reason are given
undeserved light to create the illusion of an even playing field.