[WikiEN-l] Missed Opportunities to have avoided the Durova Case

[Guy Chapman aka JzG]

On Tue, 27 Nov 2007 05:04:44 -0700, Bryan Derksen
<bryan.derksen at shaw.ca> wrote:

>> It is not an "anti-wiki" idea, any more than OTRS or IRC are 
>> anti-wiki ideas.  Sometimes you need to allow people to let off steam
>> or release hurt or explore a thought in some kind of privacy.

>A major line is crossed when that "private letting-off of steam" results
>in administrators blocking users and then refusing to reveal why they
>did it, though. This wasn't just some private venting session that leaked.
>If an administrator were to block someone with the explanation "I ran
>this by some people on an IRC channel and they okayed it, but I can't
>tell you who or where or why", that would quite rightly result in a
>furore. "Some people on an IRC channel" don't have any authority to okay
>anything.

I completely agree.  I think I've even said as much.  The point here
is that this would not mean it was IRC that was to blame for the
cock-up, it would be the admin's fault.

And to be absolutely clear here, if I were to block someone on the
basis of information I could not easily share it would only be
*after* running it by the arbitrators.  I already emailed details of
at least one block to arbcom-l.  That still does not make it
anyone's call but my own.

We should not neglect here the obvious interpretation: that Durova
simply screwed up.  Some of us have been somewhat taken aback, and
may have learned something from it.  But ultimately it was Durova's
call and she has taken a real beating for it.  The same has happened
with blocks resulting from misjudgment of conversations on IRC, I
seem to recall.  I used to be very anti-IRC until I tried it.  

It's not clear to me what mechanism other than a private discussion
could possibly satisfy the purpose of victims discussing harassment.
If this had carried on with cc lists instead of a mailing list there
would be no effective difference.

Guy (JzG)
-- 
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:JzG