On 5 Sep 2007 at 15:52:42 -0700 Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
If Vee knows not to take this too far that shouldn't be necessary. After our long thread about moderation you should know that many of us like to give members some leeway instead of crying for blood on the least minor offence.
Unfortunately, the way Wikipedia culture has evolved these days, there seems to be a large tendency to "cry for blood" all the time, and to conduct "troll hunts". There's an extremely vindictive, punitive attitude all around, and a belief that it's more important to protect the fragile egos of long-time Wikipedians than to try to be fair to newbies who may just be inept or frustrated rather than being the evil trolls they're often labeled as when they rub somebody the wrong way. Once somebody with some status on Wikipedia claims to be attacked, harrassed, stalked, or otherwise bothered by somebody with lesser status, it's all over for them... everybody else circles their wagons and has no interest in hearing the other side of the dispute (and there are *always* at least two sides to any dispute).
This list is perhaps a bit more of a tolerant zone than Wikipedia itself these days, but still sometimes sees similar behavior, though the ability to make somebody an "unperson" by deleting their posts before anybody can read them at least doesn't exist.