[WikiEN-l] Peodophiles and wikipedia

[Kurt Maxwell Weber]

On Mon, Dec 24, 2007 at 03:51:10PM -0800, George Herbert wrote:
> Hypothetical:
> 
> Banned user X reappears on Wikipedia with spanking new account, does
> not identify themselves at all, proceeds to edit in a completely
> appropriate manner and not troll and not identify themselves by edit
> patterns etc.
> 
> Q: Are they still banned?
> 
> A: Yes.  If we find out, we block them and reset block lengths due to
> block evasion.
> 
> Their behavior with the new account can be spotlessly positive and
> otherwise policy compliant, and they're still banned.  We just may not
> have caught them (yet, or ever).
>

This is a horrible idea (not just for pedophiles, but for anyone permabanned for any reason).

If blocking is supposed to be preventative rather than punitive, then what preventative purpose is served by re-blocking this user, if every indication is that he will not resume his prior behavior?

(yes, I'm aware of the conceptual difference between "banning" and "blocking"; blocking is just the manner by which bans are enforced).

--
Kurt Weber
<kmw at armory.com>