Michael R. Irwin wrote:
If too many casual or hit and run type vandals are
banned that we
are likely banning the next users, not the vandal.
That's true, but I think it just shows that we should clear the
banlist from time to time.
For high school or college users to begin relying on
the Wikipedia
as a resource timely access is required due to homework deadlines,
typically on the order of days or hours, not weeks.
Banning only affects editing, not reading.
What period of time for routine banning would you
(anyone) suggest
as an estimate of the initial proper tradeoff between potential
denial of service to legitimate users and the attention span of
casual or hit and run type vandalism?
It probably depends on the context, the time of year, etc.
--Jimbo