Some of this e-mail is incomprehensible to me, so I am unable to form a
valid opinion. This may also apply to other readers. Cheers,
Peter
----- Original Message -----
From: "Eddy Paine" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2013 2:22 PM
Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Protecting the Encylopedia vs Destroying a human
Hello,
First of all I was asked to take a look at the following case. I found it
very strange how people behave against other people and I would like to
write about it and ask opinions. I'm sure this is not only for this user
but there are more users like this.
I understand that its needed for people to block users when the
encyclopedia or the project is in danger, but where do will place the
border? I think destroying people or behaving against people like I will
describe below is also endangering the project. We should all remember
that we are humans and not robots and everybody makes mistakes. Therefor I
am sure that there was behavior that was totally wrong, but the way the
whole international community decided to handle it was wrong also.
First of all we have a policy against socks. In that policy we describe
that its not right to edit with two accounts at the same time or working
together with 2 accounts to get something done. Secondly its not right to
use new accounts to evade blocks. Lastly bot accounts are not seen as
socks neither are old and unused accounts. Besides that we have a policy
in place that says that people are free to leave the project or abandon a
username and continue with a new name. This I guess is for protecting the
project and protecting the people that work on it.
Now to get to my case. On 3 July on Meta a attack started against a former
Dutch Wikipedia user. This attack was mainly started by people of the
Dutch Wikipedia. The same people that are willing to destroy this user.
(http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Abigor) now before
you all click away this message hear me out and give me opinions. This is
now almost two years ago and a good moment to look back. If I am wrong
please point me to that and lets keep a good talk instead of going all
"don't waste our time".
In this case there was a big list of names that where socks and this
"sockmaster" needed to be blocked. But when we look at our policies and on
that list we see the following:
Abigor (talk • contribs • block • SULinfo • x-wiki • CA) - thats meAbiBot
(talk • contribs • block • SULinfo • x-wiki • CA) No sock its a bot, only
did bot editsAbiBot.nl.wiki (talk • contribs • block • SULinfo • x-wiki •
CA) No sock its a bot, only did bot editsAbibot (talk • contribs • block •
SULinfo • x-wiki • CA) (renamed to AbiBot[2], self acknowledged)Huib
(talk • contribs • block • SULinfo • x-wiki • CA) Created on request by
meta communety en en.wiki communety, because I sign with Huib while I'm
abigor... Its points to my abigor account and its created to protect my
own account. Execpt for the rename edits, it didn't edit at all.Huib (old)
(talk • contribs • block • SULinfo • x-wiki • CA) Did a rename request to
get Huib free..Sterkebak (talk • contribs • block • SULinfo • x-wiki • CA)
old account... on my userpage is a note that I used to use that
oneSterkeBak (talk • contribs • block • SULinfo • x-wiki • CA) old
account... on my userpage is a note that I used to use that oneSterkebot
(talk • contribs • block • SULinfo • x-wiki • CA) No sock its a bot, only
did bot editsSterkeBot (talk • contribs • block • SULinfo • x-wiki • CA)
(renamed from Sterkebot[3][4] and later renamed to AbiBot[5][6])P.J.L
Laurens (talk • contribs • block • SULinfo • x-wiki • CA) - Its a account
created for my uploads, it has a different userpage on Commons with
information about me as photographer. Didn't do any edits just created for
the userpage and information. All my uploads are pointed to this one with
a link.WikiLinkBot (talk • contribs • block • SULinfo • x-wiki • CA) No
sock its a bot. Only editted on nl.wiki to let its userpage be removed,
the dutch admins didn't want to remove the page.This list is ctrl C Ctrl V
from Meta.
Now go to the policy:
Abigor is the account of the user. Than we have AbiBot, AbiBot.nl.Wiki and
Abibot sterkebot SterkeBot as bot accounts. According to the policy
accounts used by a bot without human edits are not socks. Huib and Huib
(old) Sterkbak SterkeBak P.J.L Laurens. All those names are old accounts
without overlapping edits so according to the policy its not socking. Some
accounts doesn't have edits at all but where only there to redirect.
WikiLinkBot is intresting cause its now in use by a other user. This user
is also the source for the blocking on the Dutch Wikipedia. Abigor would
have placed personal attacks against this user and now the user is having
that accounts. Very intresting don't you think.
Then we get a bunch of accounts:
Accounts with only a few edits and no CU results where linked to this
users. I strongly believe that we should have proof before pointing
something out and say "hey it was you". But the account where I want to
speak about is Delay. We have the policy that says that you can start
right over with a new account. But still a Foundation employee confirms a
link between the Delay Account and the Abigor account something CU didn't
do at start. So we have a policy, but the policy doesn't work for some
people?
The coolest thing here is that we block him for disrupting a project. Or
disrupting multiple projects, but every account used on the Wikipedia did
get a barnstar for good work. Since when do we give vandals barnstars? Or
since when do we block people doing good work?
So in this case one of the accounts that pointed to him is now in use by
the user requesting Abigor to get blocked. There are a bunch of account
creations that are never clearly linked to the user. Its linked by Abigor
was on Wikimania so he have done the actions. And after that we decided to
TELL all communities where he was active that he is a danger.
So tell me, why doesn't get this user the change to start over like many
others did. Many people have more accounts, or old accounts and why don't
do they get blocked and most off all why do we keep hunting him down when
there is clear proof that he is doing good work (a.k.a barnstars). Where
do we draw the line between protecting a community or scaring people off?
Ed
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