I think that one of the biggest barriers to the implementation and enforcement of global bans are past history, a lack of understanding of the forced interdependence of projects through the SUL process, and difficulties in finding ways to share information about the seriousness of problems created by certain users (which often include non-public information).
I have heard from users active in projects other than English Wikipedia that the Enwp practice of suggesting that their community-banned editors spend six months contributing to another project has had negative effects on other projects. I can certainly see why this has created a sense that other projects were being used as a "dumping ground" for people deemed unsuitable for the Enwp community. This philosophy is slowly abating on our project (in recent years, the closest an Arbitration Committee statement has come is saying that contributions to other projects will be considered in future ban/block reviews), but it's not entirely dissipated. Sister projects should not be considered informal rehabilitation facilities for problem users. On the other hand, it probably has not really occurred to other projects that the SUL process has enabled users banned on some projects to continue to create problems without leaving a publicly visible trail of activity. These problems can range from inappropriate use of the "Email this user" feature to resumption of activities on the project where they've been banned because they've been allowed to create a new account name on the "alternate" project, with many other permutations along the way. It's often difficult to figure out who to share the background information with on various projects, because of cultural differences (for example, different "rules" for checkusers), and because public revelation of some of the information may repeat the harm that was caused by the banned user in the first place. I too would like to see the development of a process for global banning of users who have created serious problems on either the global or the multiple-project level. Risker/Anne _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
