Parker Peters wrote:
I've welcomed new users. I really wish our welcome
message included item
links to the dispute resolution areas (broken as they are) these days. I
think it would help new users who get into a conflict when being bold, since
bold behavior often leads to conflicts with others. For that matter, why
isn't a welcome message automatically generated on the creation of any new
account's talk page, so they'd instantly see a "You have new messages"
bar
and be able to see the welcome message? Why not do that instead of waiting
for an admin to come along and do it?
I don't know that an automated message will help. The templated welcome
messages that I have seen strike me as very cold and impersonal. A
pleasant welcome without references to a lot of rules would be more
friendly. When one person shows a willingness to answer question and be
a mentor it gives the newbie someone to turn to.
I've screwed up and blocked someone in a conflict
of interest. Twice. I
apologized later, but the damage was done. In one case I didn't apologize
until the 24 hours was up, because I didn't calm down quick enough and
nobody - thanks to the "contact the blocking admin first" stupidity we have
these days - was willing to unblock once I logged out. I got two "I want to
talk to you about this case" messages, but since I didn't respond, nobody
unblocked. In the second case, I unblocked after 10 hours, but only after
another admin contacted me on IRC. Their statement was that they wouldn't
unblock as it would be "incivil" to me to do so, but they thought I should
reconsider.
Sounds like somebody needed a reality check. There is nothing uncivil
about a single reversal with relevant comments. It merely deals with
the fact that none of us can be online 24/7
Yes, it does bother me that I did this, and yes, this
is partially why I'm
leaving, or at least taking a decently long wikibreak. Because I'd seen this
behavior in others, but catching myself doing it makes me unhappy with
myself, and realizing that I did it in part because I'd absorbed the "admins
are gods" culture in Wikipedia makes me worry I'd do it again on another bad
day.
Congratulations for being able to recognize when you do this yourself.
Too many spend a lifetime here incapable of understanding that they are
sometimes the one at fault.
- I've seen plenty of edit wars and enforced 3RR.
Three times in my memory
someone's unblocked someone that I blocked for 3RR/edit warring when they
were tag-teaming someone else. Yes, they technically didn't violate 3RR.
Were they trying to provoke the other guy into it? Damn skippy they were.
Policy says you block both sides in an edit war, not just the 3RR violator,
and I was following that.
I've never supported 3RR, but one needs to remember its purpose, which
is to calm an argument, not to solve it. Persistently using it as a
punitive weapon tends to lose track of its purpose.
Ec