I was going to bring this up to the arbitrators, but it seems to be a
general principle of wider interest, so I'm bringing it up here instead:
The current arbitration case, [[Wikipedia:Matter of Theresa knott and
Mr-Natural-Health]], has turned up some evidence that Mr. Natural Health
has participated in a good deal of flame-warring and whatnot on Usenet,
and has in some newsgroups been considered a "troll" and general
trouble-maker, at least by some people. There is currently disagreement
over whether this should be taken into account, or considered relevant
at all. See that page's edit history and talk page for more.
Off the top of my head, pros of taking it into account include an
ability to avoid dealing with known trolls and troublemakers (we don't
wait for someone to troll Wikipedia extensively if they've already
trolled a dozen forums and sites before). Cons include possibly
carrying over unwarranted persecution from other forums to Wikipedia (we
can't always be sure of who the people making accusations are, and most
of us aren't familiar with the context and climate of these
non-Wikipedia forums).
Comments can go here on the mailing list or on the talk page referenced
above. This seems like a general principle we ("we" here being
"Wikipedians") should decide on, not just for this particular case.
-Mark