[WikiEN-l] The userbox fad

Tue Jan 3 19:53:51 UTC 2006

On 1/3/06, Chris Jenkinson <chris at starglade.org> wrote:
>
> slimvirgin at gmail.com wrote:
> > Exactly right. Almost every block is at serious risk now of being
> > reversed by an admin who's never read the blocking policy, has had
> > very little interaction with the community, and who got elected with
> > under 20 votes, but decides he quite liked something the blocked user
> > once posted, and so therefore he has to unblock, leading to wheel
> > wars, endless explanations of the most obvious things on WP:AN/I, and
> > a consequent unwillingness on the part of other admins to block
> > troublemakers until they become serious problems (and even then it can
> > be difficult: see the Marsden situation). Unfortunately, part of this
> > problem is fueled by the philosophy that adminship is "no big deal,"
> > which if Jimbo reads this thread, I ask that he consider commenting on
> > somewhere, because I've lost count of the number of support votes I've
> > seen quoting it, leading to yet another unknown and possibly clueless
> > admin being promoted. Combine poor admins with hundreds of users who
> > are turning Wikipedia into a social club, and you have a giant mess.
>
> I'm not sure how this whining about new admins is helpful. Rather than
> stirring up bad feeling amongst admins, perhaps you could do something
> more productive about the situation, such as asking new admins to
> explain their actions, voting oppose to people you think are unfamiliar
> with admin policy, etc.?
>
> I, in general, don't see how complaining about inexperience among new
> admins, is going to give them the experience necessary. I think it
> should stop, and more productive behaviour should start.

Chris, considering that you were the person who wheel-warred on Marsden's
blocking (Marsden was eventually banned by Jimbo), while admitting you did
not know the details of the case, and incorrectly claiming that permanent
bans could only be applied by the Arbitration Committee (though the policy
quite clearly says otherwise), I'm not surprised you reacted negatively to
those comments.  Nevertheless, this list *is* the place to discuss these
things.

Jay.