Wikipedia Editors Speak Out

From Yahoo:
"Wikipedia editors question site's planned blackout"

Can the world live without Wikipedia for a day? The shutdown of one of the Internet's most-visited sites is not sitting well with some of its volunteer editors, who say the protest of anti-piracy legislation could threaten the credibility of their work. "My main concern is that it puts the organization in the role of advocacy, and that's a slippery slope," said editor Robert Lawton, a Michigan computer consultant who would prefer that the encyclopedia stick to being a neutral repository of knowledge. "Before we know it, we're blacked out because we want to save the whales." Wikipedia's English-language site shut down at midnight Eastern Standard Time Tuesday and the organization said it would stay down for 24 hours. Instead of encyclopedia articles, visitors to the site saw a stark black-and-white page with the message: "Imagine a world without free knowledge." It carried a link to information about the two congressional bills and details about how to reach lawmakers. It is the first time the English site has been blacked out. Wikipedia's Italian site came down once briefly in protest to an Internet censorship bill put forward by the Berlusconi government. The bill did not advance. The shutdown adds to a growing body of critics who are speaking out against the legislation. But some editors are so uneasy with the move that they have blacked out their own user profile pages or resigned their administrative rights on the site to protest. Some likened the site's decision to fighting censorship with censorship. One of the site's own "five pillars" of conduct says that Wikipedia "is written from a neutral point of view." The site strives to "avoid advocacy, and we characterize information and issues rather than debate them." Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales argues that the site can maintain neutrality in content even as it takes public positions on issues. "The encyclopedia will always be neutral. The community need not be, not when the encyclopedia is threatened," he tweeted.

^ I completely agree with the editors since it makes Wikipedia go against its own code of conduct and makes it no longer neutral. I haven't used Wiki at all today and have lived just fine without it. Maybe this little stunt will backfire on Wikipedia and will show people they can get their information from other places - like we did before Wiki. ^

http://news.yahoo.com/wikipedia-editors-sites-planned-blackout-225904304.html