[WikiEN-l] Re: WikiEN-l Digest, Vol 31, Issue 27

Sun Feb 5 02:53:36 UTC 2006

> > The Cunctator wrote:
> > > Should any of us declare war on vandals?
> > >
> > > Aren't most vandals people who are just being juvenile, and likely if
> > > shown how much fun being a productive contributor to Wikipedia is,
> > > would rather have their edits last, influencing others?
> > >
> > > Shouldn't we distinguish between fighting vandalism and fighting
> > > vandals? It's not personal -- it's business. Right?
> > >
> > > Isn't declaring war a gross violation of assuming good faith?
> > >
>> > Please tell me why "declaring war" on vandals is a good idea.
> >
> > Who's been declaring war on vandals?
> >
> [[User:Cool Cat]].

It is highly dishonorable to talk behind someones back although you did
mention the mailing list on my talk page. If you have a problem with me,
please use my talk page. Your personal problems with me does not concern
rest of wikipedia. And if it does concern rest of wikipedia there is arbcom
or rfc.

1. Should we declare war on vandals: Firstly define "war".
  a. If you suggest reverting vandalism is war. Then yes there shall be war.
  b. If you are suggesting using bots to monitor every edit on wikipedia,
then let there be war
  c. Fighting vandalism does not mean you get to bite newbies. Thats the
major thing I tried to emphecise with the Counter Vandalism Unit.
2. You practicaly are campaigning against everything RC patrolers are doing
ranging from opposing semi-protection, Counter Vandalism Unit to
Anti-vandalism barnstar. I do not think you have any idea the level of
vandalism wikipedia has. I'll give you two easy examples. See the history of
my talk page. Check past 5000 edits. you will see about 5+ vandal bot
attacks. Also see articles such as [[Geroge W. Bush]]. Articles such as
[[George W. Bush]] is finaly reliable. Aka when you load the page you do not
see random images of genetials. Granted Bush is a dick as far as I care but
I'd rather have an encyclopedic article about him rather than a picture of
someone elses dick.
3. I am at a state of war against some vandals, spesificaly ones that use
wikimedia vunrabilities to get good users blocked. There are vandals whom
could spoof IPs of good users and get them blocked. The more extreme vandals
get, the more exreme I will get. I'd like to note I am "warring" bare
handed. I cannot block a vandals. If we don't declare "war" on persistant
vandals who only seek to vandalise wikipedia we created for their amusement.
We need to "war" against vandalism. The ultimate battle strategy is to
destroy the will of the opponent to fight. Most vandals stop after test
warnings or a 5-15 minute "warning" block. Provoking vandals is just asking
for more.
4. I invite you to RC patrol for several days. Feel free to join us at
#wikipedia-en-vandalism on freenode. In an enviorment you are assuming good
faith there should be no reason why you should not give it a try.
5. RC patroling is not an easy task. It requires dedication of numerous
people watching practicaly thousands of edits per hour. For that we RC
patrolers only ask to be left alone, we don't even require patting in the
back. Just let us do our work and allow people to recognise our hard work by
giving us the Anti-vandalism barnstar. Vandalism can only be fought with
comunity concensus, a joint effort. Tens of vandalism happens per hour.
Mostly highschool kids testing or some congressman blanking contraversies
about him or some disturbed individual who likes to replace pages with
images of penises. It is absolutely painfull for RC patrolers to be sconred
upon for fighting against vandalism.

                   Cool Cat