Board Thread:Clean up Concerns/@comment-2059440-20160822192203/@comment-2059440-20160823141319

Mesektet wrote: I agree that removing some people for just practicing the standards of their times is onething but I am not sure about the standard that would set for adding people. A few examples that come to mind immediately but have others like them...

Roger Bacon was condemned as a heretic for teaching people to read and was critical of the Church suppression of knowledge. In the Medieval Ages this is the work of the devil. Now historical figure, so won't show up here, but what about fictional characters who are made heretics similar to Bacon?

Carrie Killian is the ghost of a witch in The Secret World, her house needs to be exorcised for a certain mission so she is the "adversary". She was burned alive for practicing magic, she only ever used it to help the neighborhood children fight monsters but she openly practiced magic in a conservative community, so one night the townsfolk burned her alive. Can we validate this as a villain based on community standards?

Heck how would we even distinguish freedom fighters from terrorists if that came to it's logical conclusion - In City of Heroes' alternate reality Earth of Pretoria we have The Resistance, who are genuine terrorists, but they are fighting in a society that is run by an oppressive overlord, it is basically the Taliban vs President Luther, how do we validate those sort of societies?

The Thalmor of Elder Scrolls are just doing what their society has taught them, that elves are half ascended gods that are kept from reaching their intended apotheosis by all the other "mortal mud-races", who must be purged, this is an entirely valid and culture tested outlook to the Altmer (high elf) society. Would we remove them based on that?

Vegita, Nappa and Raditz of Dragon Ball Z, are just doing what is expected of their culture, to conquer other planets, even so-called heroic Sayan, Bardok sees planetary conquest as just what Sayans do to get by, would we remove all of them based on their cultural standard?

I do get the concern but I am just worried about how many contributors will use this as open season for fan-white-washing as well as where that new standard puts us. I'm talking more about characters users would add due to being seen as "racist, bullying and controversial" by today's standards rather than the more complex ones (such as "one man's terrorist" paradoxes).. for example, Walt Disney was added to this wiki once due to his appearance in a film - set in his time period and his "crimes" were being misogynistic, racist and power-hungry.. which he may well of been by our standards but in his day and age he was nowhere near an extremist in his views and thus putting him here is a little silly.

basically, if someone is not a criminal or extremist by their time-period (to the point they'd be "moderate" if not for how social norms changed over centuries (even decades) ) can we really add them alongside the likes of Destroyers and Madmen?