[WikiEN-l] Re: Madchester's wrongful blocking (user: shultz) (ip: 68.102.193.78.)

Mon Oct 31 19:41:33 UTC 2005

On 10/31/05, Timwi <timwi at gmx.net> wrote:
> shultz at ksu.edu wrote:
> > He blocked even though the last edits were to MY user talk page. It's
> > like dictating what I can or can't have at home.
>
> No, it isn't. People should stop thinking that. Your User talk page is
> not your personal inbox where you can press 'Del' to get rid of
> something you don't like. It is a place where people can leave you
> public(!) messages, and they should stay there.
>
> Your User page is slightly more like your "home": Here you can have a
> say in what DOESN'T go on it. However, even there you're still not free
> to put anything to offend/annoy/irritate/insult other users, hurt the
> project, or engage in anything illegal. Therefore, everyone has the
> right to remove any such things from your User page, and you can't
> really compare that with trespassing into your home.
>
> Timwi

This view is contradicted by at least one prominent member of the
Arbitration Committee, [[User:Neutrality]], whose talk page header
boldly claims "I archive when I feel like it. Depending on my whim,
your comments may or may not be archived. The odds of not being
archived are inversely proportional to the amount you annoy me. Please
do not annoy me."

In other words, his view is that deleting items on one's own page is
discretionary.  If you want to see what uncomplimentary comments
others have left, then you'd better get used to using the "page
history" function because they won't necessarily be archived.

Blocking someone for doing what a Wikipedia arbitrator explicitly
claims the right to do is wrong.  If there was another reason for the
block, that's another issue, but if this person is being blocked for
deletion edits on his own talk page, then you should either unblock
him, or block Neutrality as well.

If you want people to stop thinking that they can delete what they
like off their own user talk pages, convince [[User:Neutrality]] to
change his talk page header first.

Even though I think deletion of negative comments on one's user talk
page is a deceptive thing to do (actually, I think it's worse than
simply deceptive), I respect the user's ability to edit one's own user
and talk pages as they please, including deleting complaints and other
unpleasant comments.  That's why my talk page encourages people to
look in the page history and not an archive.

--
Michael Turley
User:Unfocused