On 1/8/07, Andrew Gray shimgray@gmail.com wrote:
Fundamentally, I cannot see any reason not to release it. We're not talking a vandalhunter here; there are no complex algorithms that can be gamed, no part of this bot that will work better if its targets don't know how it works, no plausible scenario where secrecy will prove advantageous to it. It has a clearly defined, explicitly defined, method; releasing the code to show that method shouldn't, to my understanding, be a problem to its operation. So why not? It'll make people feel better about it, reduce fear and uncertainty, and let us all get on with creative work - which is what we're here for.
Well, en.wp isn't the only Wikipedia. If someone had the code, they could probably fire it up on any other Wikipedia and continue to do this until they'd hit all of them (and presumably vandalized them all). I imagine this would be far more disastrous than not releasing the code. And of course the vandals /could/ code this themselves, but it's so much easier when someone hands you the code on a GFDL platter.
Or is this WP:BEANS?
--keitei