In a message dated 4/27/2003 6:30:44 PM Eastern Standard Time,
zoecomnena(a)yahoo.com writes:
> Not a problem. I have no interest in performing
> anything other than the minimal creation of brand new
> articles. Henceforth I will be blocking no one,
> reverting no vandals, editing nobody else's articles.
>
> There. All of the people I have ever blocked are now
> unblocked
Since this was in response to my email, I think I should respond.
Zoe, in no way was my email meant as an attack against you. Rather, it was
pointing out a fundamental problem with blocking users. I am not against
blocking users. Michael should be blocked. Ark (remember him?) should have
been blocked. The problem I have is that occasionally the blocking affects
other users as well. On two occasions, it has affected me: when Isis blocked
someone, and when you blocked Michael. As I understood your answer, I would
have to wait till Michael was unblocked. To me that is not a solution.
Imagine yourself in a similar situation--being blocked because your happen to
share an IP address with Lir.
Of course, I am not blaming you for the problem. I am simply bringing to the
attention of the list that this problem exists and should be addressed. By
all means block vandals, but let's try to find a better way to do it, so that
other users are not blocked too. LittleDan has made a suggestion on how that
can be done. I am too computer illiterate to understand the ramifications,
but it seems that there are alternative ways. I hope we can explore them.
I've been at Wikipedia for a relatively long time--long enough to remember
many of the characters that have done their damage here. On a more positive
note, I've even been here long enough to remember new users, including you,
testing the waters, so to speak, and turning into some of our top
contributors. In the time I've been here, I've contributed quite a few
articles myself and I even did all the president tables. I hope to continue
contributing for a long while to come. If I am blocked, however, I will not
be able to do so. Maybe that is a major part of the part of the damage that
vandals do--having other contributors with something to add tossed off the
project for computer-related problems.
If my posting to this mailing list offended you, I apologize. It was
certainly not meant in that way. All I wanted was to find an alternative way
of blocking vandals, so that real contributors, such as me, are not forced
out.
Danny
Wikikarma: [[ney]]