[WikiEN-l] Bans and online/offline reputation (was Re: Follow-up on my Ban from Wikipedia (part 3))

[Armed Blowfish]

On 08/09/2007, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Destroying that person's online
>> reputation - and offline reputation
>> too, if the person's offline identity
>> is known - with a variety of insults
>> posted on top Google-ranking pages
>> is revenge.
>
> Only if it is done intentionally to harm them.

It can be harmful, without providing Wikipaedia
any benefit, without being 'intentional'.  We aren't
telepaths, or at least I'm not.

> Negative information
> being publicly available is a simple byproduct of transparency. It's a
> matter of weighing up the harm done to the person against the harm
> done to Wikipedia by being less transparent. Since we like Wikipedia
> and generally don't like to people we are blocking, is it surprising
> we choose what's best for Wikipedia?

I think making the pages available in high-ranking Google
results is more than 'transparency', it's shouting out to
the world.

The block log is publicly searchable, but is not indexed
by Google.  Other pages (user pages, user talk
pages, Arbitration pages, RfC pages, AN pages, etc.)
are indexed by Google.

I am doing a study, going through the list of banned users
and running Google searches on their usernames.  Often,
negative Wikipaedia pages occupy the first two results.
I haven't completed enough yet to provide useful statistics,
but it does seem to be a problem.

Many people go on and on about how Wikipaedia is an
encyclopaedia and not a tabloid.  However, the encyclopaedia
is contained within the article namespace.  Is there any
reason for namespaces other than the main (article)
namespace and the image namespace to be indexed
by Google?  The ramifications of indexing the rest go beyond
negative pages on banned users, also bringing many members
of the Wikipaedia community under far more scrutiny than
members of other open source projects, often with negative
results.

More page blankings would also help.  That said, a page
with nothing but a period in it can occupy the first Google
result for it's title, if the page happens to be on Wikipaedia.