Jimbo said: "I, too, object strongly to this practice of creating '/ban' pages as a place to complain about people. It seems likely to escalate a conflict rather than to resolve it."
response copied to [[meta:talk:bans and blocks]], for those who miss the "edit this page" button. I know I do. :-)
Can we, between ourselves, find a better solution than /ban pages? Prior to my (groundbreaking ;-) creation of the first ever /ban page, best practice seemed to edit [[wikipedia:annoying users]], [[wikipedia:vandalism in progress]], [[user talk:USER NAME]], [[wikipedia:village pump]], any and all talk pages for articles that the user in question had edited, various talk pages of interested sysops ("I think it's Fred", "I agree - it's Fred", "It's definitely Fred!", etc), and also to make long posts to the mailing list in which one is either "shocked", "appalled", or (ideally) "shocked and appalled".
My desires were: * Single place for discussion - if I want to know "Why was Fred banned?", I should be able to go to *one* Wikipedia page, read it, and be enlightened. * Avoid/discourage redundant discussions * Ability to refactor away redundancy * Ability to delete page when a banned user is reinstated, or when calls for banning subside and the sweet voice of reason prevails
Alternatives I can think of immediately: * Do it on the user talk page * Have a different name for the page (eg /complaints, /problems, ...) * Do it on a subpage of [[wikipedia:annoying users]] (eg [[wikipedia:annoying users/Fred]])
-Martin "Never met a vandal he didn't like" Harper (aka MyRedDice)