Hi Anthere
Checks should be done only on accounts doing
abusive edits to Wikipedia
(vandalism, insults, spam, defaming etc...)
If checks are done without any relevant reasons
related to abuse, then
those checks are abusive and the person with the
checkuser access should
(will) lose it.
Just like admins wrongfully blocking accounts are also supposed to
have their admin status revoked? Please realize that the two actions
have very different worst cases.
Blocking: Worst case: You do not get to write in Wikipedia for a while.
IP Checking: Worst case: Someone who doesn't like you get your ip
checked, calls your ISP and talks with a clueless receptionist who
reveals your real life name. That person then publishes your name
somewhere. Your boss who happens to also be a Wikipedia user finds out
about it and fires you because s/he think your political stuff you've
written on Wikipedia suck. So some brat on WIkipedia cost you your
employment.
Given the severe lack of static IPs that still exist, and the number of
ISPs who now pool subscribers together into regional proxies, an IP is
no longer the "personal" thing that it might once have been.
--
Alphax -
Contributor to Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
"We make the internet not suck" - Jimbo Wales
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