UDWiki:Think about the children
Every once in a while some prick appears in the wiki and start yelling about how an image used on a group page is offensive, due to it being gory, soft-pron, copyrighted, or any other excuse they would have to remove an image from the wiki. Most of the times they simply say that this is not the place for this, and that people use the wiki in the work or are too young to see this kind of material. Well, let's discuss this, shall we?
Not Safe for Work
One of the most stupid reasonings to remove an image from the wiki is to claim that it is not safe for work. This is the Urban Dead Wiki. A wiki about a game with the living dead. As far as I am concerned, just being in a page about a game should already be not safe for work, so why should we remove any other content that is also not safe? Go to work, lazy employee, and stop telling people what we can and cannot show here for your own job security.
Think about the children!
Many argue that some images hosted here are not the kind of thing that kids should be watching. Well, while I agree that some kind of ultra-violence shouldn't be displayed to young and innocent minds, I can't help but remember that this is a zombie game. Zombies should be the stuff that scare the shit out of people, together with werewolves and vampires and mummies. Thanks to Hollywood, the gaming industry, and White Wolf, the creatures of the night now share our table as we have dinner with our families. Some kids just wish they could be a werewolf like the one shown in the Storyteller RPG gaming system. So, if they are not scared about the living dead anymore, why should they be kept away from it? While this isn't Oggrish, hosting a myriad of pics of dead people, some few, clearly photoshopped or using makeup shouldn't be tagged as gory just because children use the wiki too. As pornography, if they really want to watch this kind of thing the internet has plenty of places for them to look at.
Racist Bigotry
How many different cultures, ethnics, races, religions, countries do we have in this world? If I ever had to measure my own behaviour in the wiki because I might offend someone who thinks the opposite, I would never ever be able to say that I like a good barbecue made of cow or pig meat, because by doing so I would offend Indians or Jews. There will always be a person who completely disagrees with anything you do or think. So, unless someone is making constant racist comments against someone directly, there is no reason to point the finger at someone who created a page like the Witch Burners and claim they are racists against the Wiccans, because that's totally missing the point. Take any racist comments in context first, before calling them racists.
Copyright
Copyright issues were already a hell to handle in this wiki. A user came to the point of asking for the removal of one of the most famous and important group in Urban Dead claiming that it was copyright infringement. While, yeah, there was some kind of copyright violation there, there was no harm being done for its owner. Actually, the owner of said copyright should even be grateful to the leaders of that group, since they were advertising their products at no cost for a mass of thousands of readers. Probably many people knew about Ron Burgundy because of this group :)
While this is clearly a good case of copyright violation, there could be situations where things don't run that nice. Kevan got legally warned because of a group name that shared the same name of a real life company that didn't like the idea of the name being associated with a zombie game. In this cases, there is nothing to be done but to bow to the will of those who own the copyright.
For most sysops and users the current policy on copyright is if it's causing no harm, then there is no reason to cause harm. This means that users are somehow free to add copyrighted content into the wiki, as long as they don't profit from it or claim to be their own work. Like forums and public boards, copyrighted material will always be present in this wiki, and be an important part of it.
Got Milk?
I hope this helps clear some issues in the wiki. If people simply use their common sense and don't abuse the tools and freedom they have, there is no need to punish others because they have said or done something slightly offensive to others. Sometimes, its just better to smile at things and enjoy the fun bandwagon, than create drama and being called a stupid jackass.
