[WikiEN-l] Anons banned from creating articles

Wed Dec 7 19:41:34 UTC 2005

The Cunctator wrote:

>On 12/6/05, Martin Osterman <stonewallgrant at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>Perhaps my newness to the encyclopedia (member as of March, 2005) has left
>>me feeling naieve.  However, I'm inclined to give Jimbo the benefit of the
>>doubt.  He says it's an experiment, so I'm inclined to go with that.
>>
>>On what grounds do you suggest that this is a "permanent policy change" in
>>the guise of an experiment?
>>
>
>Primarily because experiments are better designed. I think part of the
>problem is that what I'm thinking of as an experiment is different
>from how Jimbo's using the word. He's probably just using it to mean
>"I'm making a change and I'm not 100% certain of what will happen,
>even though I'm pretty sure it'll be good."
>
>
There's a difference between "experiment" and "scientific experiment".
The former is appropriate for speaking of "youthful experimentation"
for instance, which is rarely pursued in a properly controlled way. :-)

Tightening up of WP openness and process is very much akin to what
has happened to the Internet as a whole, in response to systematic
assaults on people's computers. It wasn't that long ago that a number
of idealists routinely made their passwords and other access info
public, in the name of openness (I personally logged in as RMS a
couple times, strictly for legitimate reasons! :-) )  Nowadays
machines will get pwned within minutes - a sad statistic on the
number of evildoers running rampant in the world.

Stan