[Foundation-l] Release of squid log data

Thu Sep 20 14:03:53 UTC 2007

On 9/20/07, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 20/09/2007, Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org> wrote:
> > There are plenty of admins that happily make their real identity
> > public knowledge and apparently aren't so afraid of "stalkers" that
> > they're unwilling to block people.  There's probably at least one of
> > them online 24 hours a day.  Get one of them to make the block.
>
> I agree, that ought to be enough in most situations. It would be good
> to have something to fall back on if we end up needing to block
> someone known to be dangerous, though.
>
If someone is known to be dangerous, shouldn't we be calling the
police?  How would having a pool account help matters?  The dangerous
person would just go after everyone in the pool, or whoever set up the
pool, or Jimbo, or the board members (many of whose home addresses are
easily found).

Maybe Jimbo would be willing to make the block in those high profile
cases.  I doubt his doing so would bring him any more attention from
stalkers than he already has.

> > If there are some gaps in that 24 hour coverage, hire someone to fill
> > in those gaps.  Pay them enough that they can buy a PO box, an alarm
> > system for their house, etc.  How does society handle having judges
> > and police and presidents and soldiers and other figures who have to
> > make and enforce decisions that rile up a few nutters?  Not by making
> > them unaccountable for their actions.  If Wikipedia is a serious
> > project creating a real benefit to society, why shouldn't it do the
> > same thing?  Being part of the wikipolice is surely less dangerous
> > than being part of the real police.
>
> Presidents have bodyguards. Judges generally have police escorts if
> they need them. Police and soldiers are trained and equipped to defend
> themselves. Giving Wikipedia admins personal protection would be
> taking things a little too far, IMHO ;).
>
For volunteers, yes.  But if being an admin is so dangerous that
enough people aren't volunteering, hiring one or two people to
essentially be paid admins would be a possibility.  Creating a world
in which every single person can share freely in the sum of human
knowledge is a big real world task which has costs and risks involved
in it.

Personally I think there are probably enough volunteers right now to
cover the task, and hiring someone would be overkill.  The solution is
as I said it a month or so ago.  If you're not willing to deal with
stalkers, don't be an admin, or at least don't be an admin that
performs controversial actions.  But if the choice is between taking
away admin accountability (as suggested by Sarah) and hiring a few
body guards, I think the latter is a much better choice.