[WikiEN-l] Re: Illegitimate block.

Sat Jan 15 17:19:33 UTC 2005

One of the problems with 3RR-policy enforcement is that admins are
supposed to treat equally the editor who is inserting an unreferenced,
unsubstantiated claim, and the editor who is trying to get rid of that
claim. One is violating [[Wikipedia:Cite sources]] policy, while the
other is trying to enforce it. Yet both are blocked.

If the editor trying to enforce policy isn't allowed to violate 3RR,
then s/he must go through dispute resolution; put up an RfC (which
rarely brings useful results); or apply for mediation (which can take
months to arrange). Meanwhile the nonsense sits there for 24 hours;
then maybe there's another brief flurry of reverts, then it sits there
for another 24 hours; and this can go on for weeks, until the less
determined editor backs off.

If the process takes priority over the product, that's fine. But if
it's the production of an accurate encylopedia that is the priority,
then this is not fine.

Surely, for this reason, when looking at 3RR violations, admins should
be allowed to take into account who was violating Wikipedia's
editorial content policies and who was trying to preserve them.

Slim