On 1/8/07, Andrew Gray <shimgray(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> Fundamentally, I cannot see any reason not to release it. We're not
> talking a vandalhunter here; there are no complex algorithms that can
> be gamed, no part of this bot that will work better if its targets
> don't know how it works, no plausible scenario where secrecy will
> prove advantageous to it. It has a clearly defined, explicitly
> defined, method; releasing the code to show that method shouldn't, to
> my understanding, be a problem to its operation. So why not? It'll
> make people feel better about it, reduce fear and uncertainty, and
> let
> us all get on with creative work - which is what we're here for.
Well, en.wp isn't the only Wikipedia. If someone had the code, they
could probably fire it up on any other Wikipedia and continue to do
this until they'd hit all of them (and presumably vandalized them
all). I imagine this would be far more disastrous than not releasing
the code. And of course the vandals /could/ code this themselves, but
it's so much easier when someone hands you the code on a GFDL platter.
Or is this WP:BEANS?
--keitei