[WikiEN-l] Policy on breaches of bans

Sat Oct 22 13:56:58 UTC 2005

On 10/21/05, Oskar Sigvardsson <oskarsigvardsson at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> We can't block his IP-range, if understand it he's editing from
> 203.xxx and 141.xxx. That's 1/128th of the entire internet
> (approximately)!

 How is he able to do this? Is there a particular ISP which uses these IPs,
or is he going from multiple IPs, or what? Can the ISP be contacted? That'd
be the first step. Failing that, I'd actually suggest trying to get some
sort of injunction through the legal system (Australia, I suppose, and one
of the other editors claims to actually have known the person). "Don't touch
Wikipedia again, or you'll go to jail." That'd probably work.
 I honestly don't think blocking is a very useful long-term solution,
especially in an environment where the blocks are implemented by
semi-trusted volunteers. If Wikimedia had an employee with full developer
access who knew the ins and outs of the Internet and whose job it was to
block vandals (using both technical tools and well-placed phone calls to
established contacts at ISPs), that might work. Of course, there are 168
hours in a week, so even working 42 hour weeks it'd take 4 employees to
handle the job 24/7. Those employees would certainly have time to do other
things as well, but even so it's probably too expensive for now (rough
guesstimate $150,000/year). Hopefully the new deal with
answers.com<http://answers.com>will start bringing in some serious
revenue and something like this can be
considered.
 Anthony