On 7/20/06, George Herbert <george.herbert(a)gmail.com> wrote:
There is a difference between "Your user account
was not previously a
problem or conflict with official Wikipedia functions, but is now, we
need to officially ask you to change it or put up a disclaimer on your
User page" and "Hey, let's all go force a name change on this guy
because he didn't cooperate before".
That there may need to be a change and/or disclaimer is reasonably
obvious now. There is zero justification in that necessity for any
abuse of User:Ombudsman. They weren't violating policy before when
they refused to change their name. Beating them up now for having
previously stood up for their rights is inappropriate.
That there were discussions of forced changes or a permanent ban
before anyone sent a polite note to them explaining that Things had
Changed is a terrible, terrible shame for this mailing list...
Well, one, my proposal didn't include banning him if he cooperated. It
did include asking him nicely (both for the name change and for the
disclaimer). It would be a way _around_ a forced name change. Two,
this mailing list is open, and User:Ombudsman is more than welcome to
read it. We're not trying to hide anything by discussing it here.
--LV