[WikiEN-l] Why am I being blocked?

Wed Sep 28 19:34:44 UTC 2005

On Wed, 28 Sep 2005, JAY JG wrote:

> >From: Ryan Delaney <ryan.delaney at gmail.com>
> >
> >JAY JG wrote:
> >
> >>Ryan, how would you suggest dealing with a banned user who has, in the 6
> >>months since his ban, been continually coming back to Wikipedia and
> >>disruptively editing using almost 50 different sockpuppets (some extremely
> >>sophisticated) and almost 20 different IP addresses?  I refer you to
> >>[[User:Jayjg/Alberuni]] for more detail.
> >>
> >>Jay.
> >
> >Contact his ISP.
>
> ISPs don't appear to care.

ISPs care more than they might appear/you might think. The secret is finding
the person at a given ISP who will do something about it.
>
> >If that doesn't work, do our best to block individually and revert the
> >damage. Innocent people shouldn't be blocked for a month because of what
> >one person did.
>
> He was able to get new IPs every couple of minutes; at one point he was
> blocked over a dozen times in a couple of hours.  Individual IP blocks
> weren't working.
>
Well, next time you (or anyone else for that matter) need to ban an entire
range of IP addresses, please leave a note explaining why you did this
either here on WikiEN-L or at WP:AN/I. That way when reasonable people
complain that they can't edit (you usually tell that they're reasonable
because they don't claim to be the wronged victim of a "rogue admin" or
whatever phrase strikes their fancy), we can explain to them what the
problem is & to put the pressure on their ISP to drop the problem user.

Note: I am not condemning Jay for his actions: I think they fall under
the "Be bold" guideline, & at most he should be given a warning. If I had
been playing a drawn-out game of whack-a-mole with someone like Alberuni,
I'd likely ban one or more ISPs to put an end to the fun. But if you do
something bold like this, tell the rest of us so we can act appropriately.
At the worst, another Admin will then revert your actions -- & if that
happens, it becomes Someone Else's Problem, leaving you free to work on
other & more important things.

Geoff