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

[Guy Chapman aka JzG]

On Thu, 29 Nov 2007 08:58:58 -0600, InkSplotch <inkblot14 at gmail.com>
wrote:

>Guy, I think I see where both of you are coming from, but I'd like to
>interrupt here with a few questions. As I understand it, Private Musings
>shared information about his prior accounts with you, one of which had
>direct ties to his real-life identity, is this correct?  Is it also correct
>that he gave you no indication (or you had no indication) _at the time_ that
>one of those accounts was tied to his real identity?

No, he told me that one of them was traceable to RWI, which is why I
could not discuss it on IRC or the admin noticeboard which is where
I would normally have discussed it.

But none of the accounts *is* RWI, and a Google search does not make
the connection at all obviously.

>I ask, because, to me, discussing PM's accounts with trusted friends is
>different to me than discussing someone's real life identity.  The first, PM
>needs to understand, is about protecting the encyclopedia.  And when we say,
>"JzG is a trusted member" that's what we mean.  We trust him to do what's in
>the encyclopedia's best interests.  They're janitors, not priests.  If you
>tell them in confidence you plan to break into the school, they'll act on
>it.  I'm rather glad Guy would discuss things with others before
>acting...it's an entirely calm and rational thing to do.

Thank you.  And to be clear, it was not a mailing list, private or
otherwise, it was a few individually and carefully selected people
whose judgment I trust.  And the reason I'm not naming them is
precisely because of the witch-hunt we're seeing above.  It makes no
difference who they are because there is no evidence they passed the
information any further, and the block was mine and mine alone.

>At the same time, we trust that no one need 'sacrifice' an individual's
>privacy for the project, which is why Checkuser is such a special and
>restricted role. Guy, if you knew you were in possession of PM's real-life
>identity and were sharing that with others, then I'm afraid I would find
>that "unethical" for a Wikipedia admin.  For a Checkuser, that sort of thing
>would result in an Ombudsman investigation and likely lead to a revocation
>of their rights.

No, the main account was only revealed by David Gerard in what I
would bet money was a copy-paste direct from CheckUser output; it's
not obvious, looking at the account, that it would be traceable to
RWI, and it's not obvious, looking at the account name, what the RWI
is.  I only have PM's word for it that it is, in fact, traceable.

>I haven't been following too closely, but the impression I got from the AN/I
>threads was that it wasn't too clear which of PM's previous accounts related
>to his real-life identity (or how).  I honestly don't think Guy knew at the
>time, and probably didn't care.  Because his concern wasn't about someone's
>real life identity but their accounts on Wikipedia and what it was doing to
>the project.

None listed on the ArbCom.  It's an earlier account.

>Makes me wonder if there's anything about anonymity and choosing account
>names on-wiki anywhere.  Could be a good idea for a useful guideline/essay.

I'm sure there's something.

Truthfully, though, it's a red herring.  The problem was serial
abuse of alternate accounts.

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