[WikiEN-l] Re: Arbitration Committee members granted checkuser tool

[Jack Lynch]

This is exactly the sort of attitude that horrifies me. People who
speak like this should have no power whatsoever:

>The ArbComm has had the
> tool for some time now, and will continue to use it.  Writing to the
> mailing list won't help -- it's been too useful so far, and we're not
> going to give it up, even if you manage to build some sort of ground
> swell of emotion against it.  The Board won't help -- they've agreed to
> let us use the tool.  You might try Jimbo, but I doubt he'll overrule
> the ArbComm and the Board.

Thats a despicable attitude, particularly in response to concerns of
this gravity.

Jack (Sam Spade)

On 11/13/05, Sean Barrett <sean at epoptic.org> wrote:
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> BJörn Lindqvist stated for the record:
>
> > IP Checking: Worst case: Someone who doesn't like you get your ip
> > checked, calls your ISP and talks with a clueless receptionist who
> > reveals your real life name. That person then publishes your name
> > somewhere. Your boss who happens to also be a Wikipedia user finds out
> > about it and fires you because s/he think your political stuff you've
> > written on Wikipedia suck. So some brat on WIkipedia cost you your
> > employment.
>
> How very theatrical.  Notice that it took three evil people to cost
> "you" "your" (ooo, my very own personalized strawman!) job:
>
> #1: the evil CheckUser user who went far beyond "yes, they match" or
> "no, they don't," (which, as you know, is all we ever do)
>
> #2: the evil (and amazingly knowledgeable) receptionist
>
> #3: the evil boss (are there no labor laws in your country?)
>
> Not one of these villains is at all hesitant about heinously violating
> the terms and laws governing their roles.
>
> That's a scary world you live in, Björn.  That, of course, makes you a
> better person than me.  More wise and more sensitive.
>
> > You don't even need to be an ArbCom member to do that. Let's say a
> > veteran editor like Ed Poor asks for an ip check. Will an ArbCom
> > member oblige? Yes, because Ed Poor is trusted. So your only job is to
> > convince Ed Poor to ask for an ip check.
>
> You, of course, have indisputable evidence showing the willingness of
> each and every one of us to bend over any time Ed Poor gets an urge.
> There's no way that you could be just making this up out of your febrile
> imagination.
>
> > For more details:
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_hacking With the checkuser tool it
> > becomes so much easier.
> >
> > If you have ever met a political refugee, you know that they often are
> > very careful not to talk politics with persons they don't know.
>
> Oh, very nice escalation there!  We now see that CheckUser is a tool of
> political oppression, if we're allowed to use it, people will be getting
> shot in the back of the head down in the basement of the Wikipedia
> server farm!
>
> > Especially not with strangers from their own home country. The reason
> > is that they fear secret agents from their home country. Often this
> > fear is unfounded paranoia (there aren't THAT many secret agents in
> > the world), sometimes it is not. Their worst case checkuser scenario
> > is even worse than the worst case scenario I described two paragraphs
> > above.
> >
> > That's why I hate the checkuser shit - (mis)uses of the tool can have
> > very detrimental real-life effects on real-life persons. Something
> > that nothing other on the silly text game Wikipedia can have.
>
> Well, Björn, I have to recommend that you take this matter up with
> someone who can actually do something about it.  The ArbComm has had the
> tool for some time now, and will continue to use it.  Writing to the
> mailing list won't help -- it's been too useful so far, and we're not
> going to give it up, even if you manage to build some sort of ground
> swell of emotion against it.  The Board won't help -- they've agreed to
> let us use the tool.  You might try Jimbo, but I doubt he'll overrule
> the ArbComm and the Board.
>
> If you're serious about your concerns, you'll probably need to contact
> external authorities and tell them that the administrators of a Web site
> you like to use are recording your IP address for their internal
> monitoring and maintenance of the site.
>
> > --
> > mvh Björn
>
> I'm done with this conversation.  Over to you for the last word....
>
> - --
>  Sean Barrett     | For days, we survived on
>  sean at epoptic.org | nothing but food and water.
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