[WikiEN-l] Re: Michael's threats

Wed Apr 2 12:07:48 UTC 2003

--- Daniel Mayer <maveric149 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Brion wrote:
> >On Tue, 2003-04-01 at 10:26, Daniel Mayer wrote:
> >> >Please see [[Talk:Crass]].  In Michael's new
> >>> >incarnation as Weezer, he wrote: "You call me
> Michael
> >> >one more time. I'll pound on your neck, and
> smash you
> >> >into pieces and kill you Zoe."
> >> >
> >> >Zoe
> >>=20
> >> Could one of the developers get this creep's IP
> so
> >> that Zoe can call the cops? This is well above
> being a
> >> simple bannable offense. Death threats can never
> be
> >> justified.
> >
> >That's certainly highly inappropriate on Wikipedia,
> 
> 
> Oh? I thought the current consensus was to allow
> Admins the ability to view 
> the IP number of logged-in users and the only reason
> this hasn't been done 
> yet is because it is a low priority right now for
> developers (nothing wrong 
> with that - so long as developers don't mind
> fetching IPs every once in a 
> while).  And since when do users have the right stay
> truely anonymous (sic no 
> access to IP address data) after threatening anther
> user anyway? But maybe I 
> missed something (it wouldn't be the first time -
> I'm so dense sometimes), so 
> please enlighten me Brion. 

Oh ! And since when *exactly* was it a consensus  that
sysops would be allowed to see other people ip please
? Enlighten me on that, 'cause I have no memory of
having ever since a consensus about that.

Was it discussed in one of this remote places on a
talk page on the en wiki ?  It sounds as if it was a
consensus essentially reached by you.

As far as I am concerned, I consider it a *very*
dangerous breach on people privacy and freedom.

Through IPs, it is possible to find people real names,
and I strongly object to this made possible. I see not
why you - as a sysop - would be given the right to
know who I am. Sysop are there to help wikipedia, not
to have power on people. There is an important notion
in freedom, it is that everyone share the same rights.
And giving denonciation abilities over the physical
bodies of people while others lower their heads more
and more in fear of having the cops called on them for
any reason that a sysop would consider good enough to
launch an attack, is not exactly what I would call a
collaborative encyclopedia.

I ask for rights to anyone here to keep privacy -
whether they are sysops or not sysops.

I know developpers can see these information, but 1.
it can't be helped and 2. I consider databases admin
to be bound to an ethic, that should prevent them to
reveal these kind of information (unless, of course,
there is a severe breach in legality). If there is a
legal issue (?), Brion or another of the developper
can make it possible for the abuser to be stopped or
whatever.

But I see no reason why a sysop - who common user are
not really given the right to accept or refuse, in
particular after sysophood is given - should be given
this power over a perfectly acceptable editor. That is
not normal to give sysop powers over a group of people
just on fear that one makes something wrong.

The sysop role is to protect wikipedia against
unacceptable aggression. This is not the role of a
sysop to run after the people. Denonciation is not the
role of a sysop. Read again what a sysop is.

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