On 6/18/07, Slim Virgin slimvirgin@gmail.com wrote:
There you go again: assertions with no evidence. It's a demonstrable fact that many non-vandalism blocks, and possibly most, are punitive, whatever happier word we prefer to describe them as. Spend a day checking out the block log and you'll see it for yourself. The argument goes that punishment is part of prevention, and that's true to an extent, but it doesn't make the blocks any less punitive.
The most important part is not that the blocks actually are preventative, but the thought process that goes into making them considers the preventative, not punitive. The ideology that produces the action, not the action itself. That is my point. (Banning is an exception to this rule, but that's why it's a separate policy.)
Prescription is bad when it's based on unrealistic ideological baggage that gets in the way of common sense.
Civility, assuming good faith, and ignoring all rules are all part of unrealistic ideological baggage that baffle common sense. If we're going to write an encyclopedia, let's get to it, right? No, not exactly. Assuming good faith is a way of looking at things that all Wikipedians should consider when, well, looking at things. It's a prescriptive guideline, and if it didn't exist, it certainly would not be widely practiced.