I agree with Theresa. We had a case a couple of nights ago where a new anonymous poster was adding misleading information to [[Football (soccer)]] among others. Start at stage one with the template "use the sandbox for your tests next time" message on his talk page, and revert all his edits. Forty minutes later he's still at it, so put an "OI!! KNOCK IT OFF!!..." message on his talkpage (from his edits he was obviously British so would understand the language!), with a warning he'd be banned if he carries on; revert again. Result, no more is heard from this anon.
While I'm discussing this case, I would like to argue that we have been far too lenient with people who make edits concerning fictitious subjects as if they were real. I'm quite happy for people to discuss Tolkienisms and Star Trekisms if they make it clear that it's "In the universe of J.R.R. Tolkien...." or "In the Star Trek universe...", but it's not acceptable they write about them as if they were in our world. In the case in point, the poster had a "thing" about Olli Freyr Oskarsson, who is a real footballer who plays for the obscure Icelandic team, Thor Akureyri; however in the "Championship Manager" computer game he is apparently a very desirable player and this poster seemed to be writing about this players' performance in one his game campaigns! While to someone on this side of the pond with an interest in football, it's obviously preposterous to write about Huddersfield Town winning the Champions League, I wouldn't expect someone in the US to realise that, just as I would have no idea if someone was posting rubbish about baseball or NFL or NHL teams. I feel we need to have a stronger reaction against posters who wilfully post disinformation, whether "just as a joke" or otherwise.
Arwel
In message C88C309EC75BC245876B4647FFD6FBCCA075E5@emailserv.queens.harley, "KNOTT, T" tknott-Ek59Oj94Ld+1Qrn1Bg8BZw@public.gmane.org writes
Calm down Danny. You are overreacting. Firstly you don?t need quickpolls, and you don?t need to go through speedy deletions. But you don?t need to be so harsh either. This is just some kid mucking about. We deal with this kind of thing all the time. (well I do anyway) I go through a procedure
1) Talk page. You must warn them on their talk page first. It?s only polite. Tell him he can?t take down wikipedia, so give up. Invite him to contribute properly. 2) Talk page again. Stern warning this time
3) delete nonsense articles and protect real ones as necessary, explain what you are doing
4) Block for 24 hours
5) Block for longer if necessary I rarely get to stage 5 -----Original Message----- From: daniwo59-YDxpq3io04c@public.gmane.org [mailto:daniwo59-YDxpq3io04c@public.gmane.org] Sent: 11 May 2004 12:18 To: wikien-l-g2DCOkC13y2GglJvpFV4uA@public.gmane.org Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] I just blocked someone for 9999 hours 1 more thing I also propose doing this without pontificating about it for six months. That is six months of potential damage to Wikipedia. Danny