[WikiEN-l] Use technical force or not

Fri May 7 21:12:15 UTC 2004

In response to matters of Tannin, Wik, and the "Troll" user names:

The first thing we have to decide is whether we're going to use force to enforce policy.  At present, as a
practical matter, we only use force:

1) against "pure vandals"
2) through page protection to deal with disputes on particular articles
3) as a last resort.  We actually use bans about once a month, and less frequently than that if the very short
bans aren't counted.

Most policy violations don't result in meaningful sanctions.  Most bans are not enforced.

I don't think we want to continue this, because things have changed and the amount of damage being done has
increased.  The trouble now is not simple vandalism, as that gets reverted.  The problem is users who are
editing in bad faith, and who all the rest of us are expected to negotiate with, respect, compromise with,
include in consensus, not censor, and so on.

So, we have Wik with his endless edit wars, and a few others like him but less prolific.

We have people using Wikipedia as a forum for self-promotion, or promotion of a particular political view.

We have people who come here to disrupt, like the recent spate of "trolls."

All these people take time and energy to deal with and set everyone against each other.  I believe we are
presently stuck with policies and procedures that suited us well in the past but which we have outgrown.

The first step to fix this is to decide that we are going to start sanctioning people who contribute in bad
faith using technical means.  Once we agree on the principles, the details will flow naturally.  Yes, we need
to be careful and have checks and balances, but the present system is driving good contributors away.

UninvitedCompany