On 8/13/07, Anthony wikimail@inbox.org wrote:
One thing I expect is to know when checkuser is run against me. I expect to know about this before it happens, and I expect a chance to argue against it happening.
But, even if this were fixed I still doubt I'd feel comfortable with the system. I think I'd have to vote for abandoning the tool completely.
Anthony, When you were caught using a sock the folks who investigated the sock decided to extend you an assumption of good faith and took your claim, that you didn't intend the negative outcome which followed from, at face value. Your actions were not publicly disclosed in that case, even though only your reputation would have been hurt and not your privacy.
I think it is sad that you are, apparently, so unwilling to extend trust to others even after benefiting from it yourself. I assume you know what they say about people who live in glass houses?
Wiki(p|m)edia isn't an anonymity service and becoming one would not further our mission.
It's believed by some that the limited level of anonymity we already provide is counter to our mission as well as the public good, although I don't personally share that view.
No realizable improvements would likely satisfy the desires of those who want better privacy enough to say something. What these people should want is a level of privacy which can only be provide by special tools (like TOR), and may not really be possible in open editable system because it is so easy to leak personally identifiable information.
I do, however, support the arguments you've made about increasing our friendliness towards outside anonymity services. We should do that to the greatest extents which are possible without damaging our ability to further our primary activities.