[WikiEN-l] /ban pages

Fri Aug 22 14:45:05 UTC 2003

Dante Alighieri wrote:
> I know that Jimbo requested that the evidence be gathered silently
> and privately, but realistically, I don't think that is
> appropriate. First of all, how is someone else to know that a user
> is being investigated for banning? If user A is gathering
> information on user B, it is possible that user C would have
> relevant experience, but not know to give it.

Well, there are pro's and con's.

> Second of all, in the interest of transparency, I think that every
> stage of something as serious as banning (which is more serious than
> page deletion, which we all agree should be fully transparent)
> should be open and fully available for perusal.

That's certainly true.  I absolutely don't want to open a new can of
headaches for me with claims that there are secret tribunals and what
not.

My main point is that we should all recognize that publicly
identifying someone as a problem user who should be banned can
*itself* generate the sort of bad behavior that we hope to avoid.  Not
always, and as I acknowledged, in many cases, the problem users are
just simply impossible to deal with.  Some are actual crackpots.  Some
are just jerks.

But fairly often, and I'm not the one who first identified this, we
have the problem of turning a mildly problematic user into an
arch-enemy with an extensive grudge against us.

--Jimbo