[WikiEN-l] Username blocks on companies

Mon Jun 19 02:41:08 UTC 2006

Erik Moeller wrote:
> On 6/19/06, Alphax (Wikipedia email) <alphasigmax at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Yes. Firstly, it's an unacceptable username;
> 
> Wikipedia:Username only speaks of usernames explicitly advertising a company:
> 
>   Accounts with usernames that advertise a particular website, company,
>   etc. (e.g. "visit [name of url]" ) are discouraged and may be blocked.
> 

I don't see how "company" or "[name of url]" are any different.

<snip>
>>  thirdly, it could be being used for impersonation.
> 
> That can be said about virtually any name. I suspect we probably have
> a few undetected cases of users impersonating people they don't like,
> ex-girlfriends, etc. Normally we assume good faith until impersonation
> is brought to our attention.
> 

For "public figures" we generally don't take the chance. A company
counts as a "public figure".

>> People identifying the company they work for shouldn't be editing the
>> article on that company
> 
> I would make an exception for obvious errors. They also have every
> right to comment on the talk page.
> 

Ok.

> I'm not saying these user accounts shouldn't be blocked -- I think
> they just may warrant a slightly more refined treatment than a
> commented version of the same template that we use for people who call
> themselves "YOU ARE ALL DICKHEADS11!!" A friendly notice how companies
> are allowed to contribute to Wikipedia would work better, I think.
> 

Yes.

> It would also be nice to be able to turn off the IP autoblocker in those cases.
> 

It would be nice to turn off the IP autoblocker in a *lot* of cases.
Unfortunately nobody seems willing to implement any of the propsed fixes
for bug 550.

-- 
Alphax - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Alphax
Contributor to Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
"We make the internet not suck" - Jimbo Wales
Public key: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Alphax/OpenPGP

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