[WikiEN-l] Peodophiles and wikipedia

[Daniel R. Tobias]

On Wed, 26 Dec 2007 12:56:05 -0800 (PST), Ken Arromdee 
<arromdee at rahul.net> wrote:

> Well, then it's equivalent to "never ban users".  Do we want a policy of
> "never ban users"?

I would actually support that... I think the concept of banning (as 
opposed to blocking) is not particularly compatible with the 
principles on which Wikipedia is supposedly run.  Blocking is a 
pragmatic move to attempt to stop (or at least put a speed bump in 
front of) sprees of vandalism or other abuse or disruption, whether 
caused by people being evil, insane, trollish, immature, angry, or 
drunk.  Since some of these conditions are capable of going away when 
the person involved calms down, sobers up, reforms, matures, etc., 
there's no need for a permanent judgment against the person involved 
if they're no longer doing whatever was causing problems before.  
Banning is an attempt to impose a "crime and punishment" model that 
does not fit comfortably into Wikipedia policy.  It's taken to 
excessive extremes by some fire-breathing admins who insist that any 
ideas that can be seen as originating with a banned user need to be 
vigorously suppressed even when a user in good standing suggests 
them.

-- 
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