[WikiEN-l] Arbitration Committee members granted checkuser tool

[David Gerard]

M. Creidieki Crouch wrote:

>I'm afraid I'm only recently following these policy discussions.  Is
>there a publically available log showing which administrators have run
>checkuser checks on which users?  The feature seems to be designed for
>times when there's a public perception that someone is a sockpuppet,
>so I'd imagine that that log wouldn't be a privacy violation on the
>people who get checked out.


I can see I'm going to have to write a FAQ.

Q. Why isn't there a public log?

A. 1. It would be a gross and blatant violation of the privacy policy.
Note that your privacy is not being breached by having a developer or
a checkuseruser look up your IP, but only by it being revealed.
2.  it would be utterly poisonous to the community. Merely being
checked on would be seen as a black mark (c.f. geni's attacks on Kelly
Martin's character in this thread).
3. It's a sysadmin level function, allowing certain people to assist
the devs so they can get on with running the actual servers. No-one
using a website can seriously expect the sysadmins will *not* check
their IP, usage patterns, etc. as is necessary for good functioning of
the site.
4. There's a log the other checkuser users can see and keep an eye on
each other. If you react "ZOMG CABAL!!!", you can say that to the devs
next, because they can check this stuff too, and do as they see fit.
With no logs at all.


- d.