On 30 Apr 2003, Brion Vibber wrote:
Date: 30 Apr 2003 01:14:20 -0700
From: Brion Vibber <brion(a)pobox.com>
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Sysop limits
On Wed, 2003-04-30 at 00:04, John R. Owens wrote:
I just wanted to check, if somewhat belatedly,
that this wouldn't be
considered an abuse of sysop abilities, if I protect one of my own
subpages. Taken strictly, it would break the rules, but I don't think it
would break the spirit of them at all.
The obvious question is: why would you want to do that? What benefit
will it bring you to prevent your neighbors from editing that page? Is
there some reason that other people possibly editing this mysterious
unnamed page would be harmful?
Protecting a page without a pressing technical or 'wikipedia national
security' need is Seriously Un-Wiki Bad Mojo; expect it to get
un-protected and to receive dirty looks from passers-by if anyone
notices you've done it. ;)
It very very much violates the spirit of the rules; locking of pages is
a technical remedy meant for very rare emergency cases; it isn't
something you do because they're "your" pages and you don't want other
people to touch them. Subpages of your user page (like your user page
itself) are "socially" in your space, but it's a friendly, neighborly,
open space into which you invite your neighbors to play in if they're
interested. There's no picket fence with a locked gateway, and certainly
no razor wire and guard dogs or "no tresspassing" sign.
Of course, if a persistent vandal has been tromping all over one of
"your" subpages, then it probably makes sense to protect it. (But better
if you don't keep editing it during that period.)
Hmm, definite grey area. It's a list of links to persistent vandal and
potential vandal User:, User_talk:, & contributions pages that I was
referring to. So while it hasn't come up on any vandal's radar screen yet,
I would like to know that none of them have been altering the contents
without needing to check the history each time, or anything like that. And
yes, of course I've already added it to my watchlist.
--
John R. Owens
http://www.ghiapet.homeip.net/
Londo Mollari: It is good to have friends, is it not, Mr. Garibaldi? Even
if maybe only for a little while.
Michael Garibaldi: Even if only for a little while.