On 5/20/06, Philip Welch wikipedia@philwelch.net wrote:
I'm not saying it should be cause for alarm--I'm saying it should be cause for ban.
I'm unconvinced simply on the basis of what someone believes they are trying to achieve. I'm talking in theoretical terms here, but let's call P their positive contributions, W the work required by other Wikipedians to clean up their negative contributions, and R the damage caused by the person to Wikipedia's reputation by their participation in the project (and the damage that isn't detected and fixed by other editors). If P > R + W, then it seems they should stay. Particularly if, with a bit of rehabilitation, we can reduce W and R.
I have no idea of those values for this particular case. I just have an instinctive negative reaction to "He is trying to subvert the project! Block him!" type reactions.
Steve