[WikiEN-l] RE: Blocking Proposal

Wed Oct 19 19:03:45 UTC 2005

From: Fl Celloguy

> True, but right now AOL IP blocks are kept to a minimum, and I haven't 
> seen an AOL range block in a long time. From the proposal: "This new form 
> of blocking will only affect specific IP addresses, most obviously will be 
> AOL, which would almost certainly be blocked due to the level of 
> vandalism. " If this proposal was implemented, it would almost be certain 
> that AOL IPs would be continuously blocked or blocked indefinitely. In 
> addition, so many schools and public-use computers would also almost 
> certainly be blocked using this method. But that's not the main point: the 
> main point is that we're restricting editing from IP addresses, which in 
> itself is against the spirit of wikis and especially of Wikipedia. We're 
> proposing punishing a large majority of internet users for a small 
> percentage of troublesome vandals. In addition, my opinion is that this 
> won't deter vandalism but will instead encourage vandalism. I see very few 
> benefits in this proposal. We don't have a problem with vandalism right 
> now; we have a problem with getting enough contributors to edit and write, 
> as evidenced with the articles [[Bill Gates]] and [[Jane Fonda]]. Are we 
> to scare off contributors, encourage vandalism, and go against the spirit 
> of the wiki? I sure hope not, and I personally think that this policy 
> would be detrimental to Wikipedia.

Also, there are people on the proposal page desperate for it to be 
introduced because they get blocked frequently.

This new kind of block would only be used when the existing kind of block 
failed, no IP would be blocked just simply for being shared. And if AOL 
vandals did stop vandalising, then it would never be blocked at all.

Martin 