3RR again (was Re: I have unblocked Blair P. Houghton. Re:[WikiEN-l] Unreaso

Wed Mar 16 18:10:16 UTC 2005

>From: Andrew Lih <andrew.lih at gmail.com>
>On Wed, 16 Mar 2005 10:53:44 -0700, Tom Haws <hawstom at sprintmail.com> 
>wrote:
> > Fresh thinking and good point against *enforcing* the 3RR.  But I don't
> > completely understand the next paragraph.  Can you restate?
> >
> > >The problem with 3RR as it's being practiced now -- it assigns blame
> > >much too early in the process, without even an attempt to stabilize
> > >the situation and let cooler heads prevail.
>
>Sure. Before the 3RR, the standard procedure was for an uninvolved
>admin to come in and protect a page with an edit war, so no one could
>edit it. The parties were forced to go to the Talk page to hash
>something out. No one was declared right or wrong, no individuals were
>singled out and the admin didn't care about the relative viewpoints.
>
>After an unspecified amount of time the page would be unprotected so
>the article could be updated.

However, what often happened instead was that both sides waited out the 
protection period, and then immediately started warring again when the 
protection was removed.

Jay.