[Wikipedia-l] "Procedural default" (was My identity...)

Fri May 16 18:37:34 UTC 2003

I don't speak much French, so I am unqualified to judge the merits
of the argument going on at the French wiki now. But let me offer an
opinion that may help guide those who do understand:

In the American legal system (and probably others), you can win or
lose a case on its merits, but you can also lose by not following
the rules of the system. This is called "procedural default", and is
necessary to keep the system working: if a party refuses to show up
for court, or complains to the wrong court, or doesn't respond
properly to the court's questions, etc., then the court will not
waste its time digging further into the issues of the case--it will
simply declare that the uncooperative party loses. If someone wants
a dispute resolved, it falls upon him to ensure that he treats the
resolution system seriously and follows the process, otherwise
there's no point in having a system at all. In extreme cases, if a
litigant actively interferes with or subverts the process itself,
casuing the court to waste its time and money, the party can even
be sanctioned or charged with contempt of court.

When Wikipedia admins are called upon to resolve disputes, they
should have the same powers. If it's something like a dispute over
naming or content, a user who ignores legitimate questions posed
to him, argues in the wrong place, and so on, should not be
surprized when a sysop rules that his opponent's argument wins
simply because his opponent behaved in a more civilized,
productive manner. Likewise, there are some offenses that are
so egregious as to merit sanctions: editing other people's quotes
to misrepresent their opinions (but not just spelling mistakes
and such), deliberate deception or dishonesty of other kinds,
like lying about what one has said previously, or about what
someone else has said.

I don't put mere hot-headedness into any of those categories:
people get excited and say nasty things, and I don't have a problem
with that as long as they keep the system working. But when they
actively work to defeat the system, they need to lose, or the
system stops working.

So, those admins who want to take some responsibility for the
foreign wikis, do it. Don't be afraid to tell an uncooperative
user that he is losing precisely because he refuses to cooperate.
Block users, temporarily or permanently if necessary, if they
actively work to subvert the system. If you need more technical
assistance to exercise those powers, ask for it. Take control.
Do what's necessary. We'll probably support you unless a dozen
reasonable-sounding users give us good reasons not to.

-- 
Lee Daniel Crocker <lee at piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/>
"All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past,
are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified
for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC