"William sauntered slowly down the road towards school. His person was
freely decorated with bandages that were the results of a skirmish
between William and a new geyser that his family had lately had
installed.
"The man who installed it had said in answer to Mrs Brown's enquiries:
'No, Madam, it's a new model and it can't possibly explode. I defy
anyone,' he had added, 'to make this geyser explode.' It was a very
foolish thing to say in the hearing of William, but then, of course,
he did not know William. William had accepted the statement as a
challenge, and had worked hard and conscientiously on the new geyser
till he made it explode. When finally they picked him up from the
debris (after ascertaining that the house still stood!) his first
remark had been a triumphant: 'There! And he said it couldn't
explode!'"
The story goes on to say how William saw himself as a seeker of truth
and justice, and his conscience was clear, even if he was covered with
bandages and he could tell little girls that his whole face had been
burnt off, except for his eyes.
Well, like William, I put truth and justice above geysers, and perhaps
I'm being foolish in pointing out loopholes in the system, but here
goes.
Purely as a hypothetical, let's say that I've been hauled up before
the Grand Jury, found to be a naughty Wikipedian and banned. I don't
agree with the decision, in fact I think the Grand Jury has its head
up its bum, but that's not important. The effect of banning an editor
is akin to being pulled over by the cops, but instead of putting the
driver in prison or fining him or taking away his licence, they take
away his licence plate. He can still drive, but now he's not
identifiable!
Doesn't this encourage bad behaviour instead of good?
Yeah, I know that the IP address can be blocked, but IP addresses are
easy to come by in these days of internet cafes, wifi hotspots and
cheap dialup. When I'm on the road I don't have access to my ADSL, so
I tend to go down to Starbucks and have a cuppa while I check my
email, or duck into whatever internet shop I'm passing and buy an hour
or so. Libraries and universities are another good place for free
Internet.
The bottom line is that if I know a certain Irish editor is an
arrogant idiot, then I can correct his stupid mistakes, fix his
wretched grammar, and adjust his spelling to conform to dictionary
standards, and what are you gunna do? Revert obvious improvements?
And if I know that a certain Melbourne editor is a bully with a short
fuse, then just how can anyone stop me from lighting it? Getting an
abusive editor out of Wikipedia seems like a bloody good idea to me.
All with the firm intention of improving Wikipedia, of course. And
giving myself a glow of righeousness.
--
Peter in Cyberspace