On 8/13/07, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On 13/08/07, K P <kpbotany(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
So, we have users given immense power to violate
the personal space of
other users, and we have no control over their use and abuse of that
power.
Indeed. Checkuser evolved from the en:wp arbcom nagging the devs on IP
matches, eventually leading to Tim hacking together an interface for
me to look up IPs without needing full database access and having to
handcraft SQL. So I suggest you solve it at the technical level: how
to stop people having to access the database for any reason. I look
forward to your work.
Ah, yes, I find problem's with the president's overseas policy, so I
should shut up or run?
I wouldn't actually give people access to the database for any reason,
though. I'm a bit shocked that's how it's done, too.
And, you don't even have to personally abuse
your own checkuser power,
as shown by the recent e-mail where a user offered up his check user
results to others who e-mailed him, so they wouldn't personally have
to sully themselves by snooping--unbelievable.
What the whuh? Link?
It was a fairly recent post, in the past week or so, where something
came up about checkuser, and a list member offered to share his
results of the check user with others with the privilege so they
wouldn't have to look it up.
That you didn't even notice is what I am talking about, that this post
went by without a blink, is what I am talking about--there are no
privacy considerations, a little sharing of what was revealed is all
fun and fair.
That's how it's been, CheckUsers have a mailing list for that reason. It's
not pixie dust, the results need interpretation and sometimes that needs to
be provided by other more knowledgable people. Without knowing to *whom*
they were sharing this information, we can't really yell at them. If a
CheckUser shares information with another CheckUser, that's fine, especially
since they all have access to the log.
So, are there privacy issues on Wikipedia? Damn
straight, when huge
powers to invade others' privacy are given without restraints.
Indeed, much as every man is a potential fabulous drag queen. That is,
theoretically.
Nice try. Well, not really.
This will still come back and bit Wikipedia real ugly. There is no
security and Wikipedia does not take user's privacy seriously enough
to demand that those with the potential to invade it strictly limit
everything they do with the knowledge they gain possession of.
KP
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Casey Brown
Cbrown1023
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