[WikiEN-l] "block" considered too harsh a word?

Tue May 10 16:28:53 UTC 2005

If users can't be bothered to read the part of the message where it
says they've been blocked for just 24 hours, they're going to throw a
fit no matter what the word is. "Blocked" itself is a neutral word: it
accurately describes the fact that they can no longer edit.

This reminds me of the idea that some schools are now requiring their
teachers to grade papers in purple pens, because a red F apparently
distresses some students...

Sam
--
Asbestos
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Asbestos

On 5/10/05, Timwi <timwi at gmx.net> wrote:
> 
> As we have seen numerous times in the past, users who are new to the
> Wikipedia tend to vastly overreact to being blocked. Some people throw
> quite a fit even when they're blocked for a mere 24 hours.
> 
> A friend of mine suggested that perhaps the word should be changed to
> something more euphemistic and something less harsh than "block". I can
> sympathise with this thinking, because if I saw a page telling me I'm
> "blocked", not knowing what it means I would probably interpret it to
> mean "blocked indefinitely", and as we know people don't tend to read
> the entire message and hence don't notice where it mentions the time limit.
> 
> Unfortunately, he didn't have any ideas what to call it instead. So I'm
> wondering what everyone else here thinks?
> 
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Asbestos