Dr. Duffy wrote:
"Much of what went on was simply Robert-baiting and
anti-Robertism. That does not make it right, but it is
wrong to attach religious or ethnic connotations to
what has been going on. There have been cases of
jew-baiting on wiki, a few cases, and I have blocked
on the most recent culprits and called for the banning
of another."
This is highly quotable. May I? While I agree with
nearly everything James has said, I disagree that EofT
deserves banning. Punishing one child and not the
other is a typical manifestation of lopsided parenting
- usually resulting in a
great despartity between how they are each treated,
and consequently how they each continue to behave.
Banning EofT, despite his rudeness, and inability to
take good sound advice -- and not banning RK -- in all
fairness, would only exacerbate the percieved problems
of rampant anti-Semitism and philo-Semitism on
Wikipedia.
While one may deserve the other, and while the rest of
the world may deserve neither, this does not mean that
misplaced force will ever solve anything. Of course,
HL Mencken disagreed: "Hanging one scoundrel, it
appears, does not deter the next. Well, what of it?
The first one is at least disposed of." But then so
many good turn of the century commentarians were
speechless after 1945. Will Rodgers... Harry Truman,
etc. etc.
-S-
I understand your point and I do believe that Robert's behaviour is
seriously wrong. However I have to say that EoT's behaviour, specifically
his creating of some many abusive /pages/, not merely fights on pages, way
crosses the line of acceptable behaviour. RK's behaviour is no justification
for EoT's response, which breaks just about every rule of wikiettique
imaginable. EoT has been repeatedly asked to stop creating these pages, and
has refused to do so. Jimbo has made it clear that he HAS to stop, yet he
has continued with the behaviour. In the circumstances I see no alternative
but to ban EoT. /Any/ user who acted in that manner in my view forfeits the
right to be on wikipedia.
RK's behaviour is grossly unacceptable and needs to be confronted also.
Wrong as his behaviour has been, in tone and context, however, at least he
has not created a whole stream of abusive personalised subpages about his
opponents, which to my mind is a worse offence. With EoT out of the way,
Jimbo also needs to get tough with RK and warn him that his behaviour is
unacceptable and MUST stop.
I was not casting judgments on the nature of the abuse by both men against
the other and treating one as worse than the other, merely observing the
fact that one user, EoT, used a methodology that is unprecedented in wiki
history and is so far beyond the realm of acceptable behaviour that it
beggars belief. The sheer scale of that offence and consistent refusal to
stop requires nothing short of a ban.
JT
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