-----Original Message----- On Behalf Of Anthony Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 11:22 PM Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Checkuser for fun, for profit, for mild curiosity, for sharing, for whatever
One thing I expect is to know when checkuser is run against me. I expect to know about this before it happens, and I expect a chance to argue against it happening.
I think the one thing not needed is another way for every edit warrior and sock warrior to have yet another way to stonewall and stall dispute resolution processes. It's a tough balance. Somewhere there's a line, trust these (few) people and processes, or refrain from editing.
But, even if this were fixed I still doubt I'd feel comfortable with the system. I think I'd have to vote for abandoning the tool completely. It shouldn't matter whether or not a user is a sockpuppet of another user. Either their argument has merit or it doesn't. Either they're breaking policy or they aren't.
In principle it should be the case. But in practice, a number of items do end up heavily damaged through sock use. Unfortunately dispute resolution is a messy art, and sock presence does make it worse. In an ideal world where every other editor was careful and fully followed policy, never argued, never got upset, always sought dispute resolution, ignored all trolls, and above all where there were no borderline areas where degree of support for different views made a difference, it would be easy. Until then, sock use is a problem, and sock exposure a sadly needed ability.
(I spend a lot of time of sock related matters and disputes + informal mediation. The above is what one sees in practice.)
Changes to admin approach on the scale to make checkuser unnecessary and policy compliance assured without it, if applied across the board, would be draconian.
It would involve a far more ruthless approach from admins, and if applied across the board, this would probably be perceived as heavy handed, undesirable, domineering, and would problematically change the entire balance of the project. Applying it to select disputes might be more beneficial.
If you really need to stop sockpuppetry, then what you need is for the user to verify his/her identity, not to check IP addresses.
The latter doesn't affect puppetry, except with considerable difficulty and trouble. If you wanted to check if two accounts were in fact controlled by the same person, you'd have to get both to make some form of non-fakable personal contact - both speak to the same person so their voices could be compared, both show formal ID to some reliable party, or the like. Given that sock check can be run on two editors far apart and in areas where such checks are difficult, and most users point-blank will not wish to do this kind of disclosure, what means would you feel might better verify their identity in any practical sense without providing far more information and greater trouble, than IP checking?
FT2.