On 3/5/06, Ryan Delaney ryan.delaney@gmail.com wrote:
Really, I don't think there is any need for policy justification of dealing with vandals. People have been dealing with them in this way for a long time and there has never been a problem with it. I have to suggest that you consider whether the apparent need for policy justification of blocking inappropriate usernames is a solution to a problem that actually exists, or whether it is its own problem. The perjorative term in this case is "process fetishism".
As it stands, a vandal could legitimately claim that process wasn't followed. Sure, they wouldn't necessarily get far - but wouldn't it be better to actually document standard practice?
To put it simply, I view this as a common-sense situation. We don't need rules when common sense does the job just fine.
Well, I wasn't actually proposing creating new rules - simply
documenting existing ones.
There's no need to involve policy in this anywhere. Policy makes people think that they only have to follow the rulebook, rather than use their common sense and talk things out. The rulebook is good for some things, but it's not good here. We need to have more trust in ourselves and each other to do the right thing when the time comes, I think.
Speaking as a pleb, policy also serves to reassure people that admins do follow some kind of rulebook, rather than simply making it up as they go along. I'm not sure that admins regularly blocking people for an undocumented reason is a good thing. However, as it is not a disastrous thing, either, I'll let it go.
Steve