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

[Alec Conroy]

On 11/27/07, Sam Blacketer <sam.blacketer at googlemail.com> wrote:
> . Administrators are individually responsible for each and
> every administrative action they take. But I don't see how that is
> contradicted by what happened here: Durova was responsible for the block of
> !!, and she has been held to account for it. Precisely no-one appears to be
> arguing that Durova's responsibility is diminished because she ran it by a
> select group before taking action; even if that group had all supported the
> proposed action, it would still have been the responsibility of whoever
> performed the block.


It was her responsibility-- but it was their responsibility too.  She
drew upon the authority of others several times in justifying her
block.   The fact that arbiters had endorsed the block was implied if
not outright stated.

If an arbiter advises an admin to take an erroneous action, who made
the error?  Well, everybody involved.

But, we're not saying anybody should be burned at the stake over
this-- but we have some refs who made completely unreasonable calls,
and we need to know who, so that we can help them and us learn how to
prevent this sort of thing from happening again.  THe people who were
involved should be WELCOMING this process, not trying to hide in the
shadows lest people know how badly the blew the call.

Durova here was a great example.  She stood up, she admitted she had
made the call, admitted some of her her error, and decided she needed
to ask the community for their trust again.   Her actions in how she
handled the error have been 100% exemplary.

Unfortunately, her associates haven't yet worked up the courage to
follow her example.  They ought to stand up, say "Yep, I saw the
evidence, and here's what I said about it.  I told her !! deserved
blocking,  I was wrong, and I apologize, and I will try to do better
in the future".

To the people who saw the evidence and endorsed the block, I would say
this. I know it's never easy to come clean when you made a mistake.
It's embarassing, it's frustrating.   I know being honest with the
community will mean taking a reputation hit in the short term-- but
it's the right thing to do for the project.  Ya made a mistake.
Doesn't make you an evil person, doesn't make you a bad person-- ya
just need to own up to it.

Alec