[Wikipedia-l] Stoping vandals (was: Blocked, insulted, and pissed)

Tue Nov 5 17:21:55 UTC 2002

Rob Brewer, replying to Ed Poor:

> >Has anyone thought of selective banning?
> >
> >Refuse anonymous edits from the banned IP, but allow 
> >signed-in edits.
> >
> >We could supply a message like, "Sorry but due to
> >abuse from IP i.j.k.l, you must sign in to
> >contribute."
> 
> I think that's what Erik Moeller had in mind with
> point #2 of his message at 11:47:25 +0100 yesterday,
> and I think it's a good idea. If vandals want to be
> persistent we should at least make them go to the
> trouble of getting a fake hotmail address to sign up
> with ;-)

Yeah, but we MIGHT have to grant sysops the power to suspend or curtail editing privileges of signed-in contributors, if they engage in:
* deleting the entire text of a page for no reason
* inserting random graffiti like "I like chicken" into an article
* nonsense like "Shakespeare was born in Marion, Illinois in 1968"
* the goatse image (?)

This change in policy would require agreement from our ever-benevolent and freedom-loving sponsor, Jimbo Wales.

Assuming any of the 41 sysops can "undo" a block initiated by another sysop, I don't think there will be a problem with abuse of this power. 40 to 1 is a lot of veto power.

Ed Poor