[WikiEN-l] Controversial user nicknames

Tue Aug 26 18:48:07 UTC 2003

On Mon, 25 Aug 2003 22:46:25 -0700, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> 
gave utterance to the following:

> james duffy wrote:
>
>> This might seem a small point now, as we don't have that many 
>> controversial user nics. But as wiki grows the number of new users and 
>> usernics will rocket. If two or three people use them and get away with 
>> it, the likelihood is that more new members will follow, on the basis 
>> that 'if he can call himself 'x', then I will call myself 'y'.'  Sooner 
>> or later we will face the problem. It makes sense to do it now, with 
>> the small community, than try to deal with it when there are twice or 
>> three times as many users, by which time offence may already have been 
>> caused to some, and potential wikipedians frightened off by the 
>> impression given by the unfortunate use of badly chosen names.
>>
>> Any observations?
>
> My observation on these names is that most of these users have an 
> attention span that matches their social grace.  Once [[User:Adolf 
> Hitler]] has joined us, he is not likely to stay long.  His usage of the 
> name, however,  means that all others are blocked from using that name 
> in the future.  The problem will effectively solve itself without the 
> need for more rules.
>
Then why doesn't someone senior and responsible simply create all the user 
names we think are offensive, effectively removing them from circulation. 
Would this create a problem with user:talk pages?
-- 
Richard Grevers
Between two evils always pick the one you haven't tried