Parker Peters wrote:
There are any number of admin actions I do not have any problem with. Blocking of actual vandals, or even whole vandal IP ranges when there's something like a GNAA assault going on, I understand and agree with.
I don't think you're going to get much argument about this. There is wide support for this from all sides involved in this debate.
What I have problems with are admins who are (A) stuck up, (B) over-egoed, (C) dickish, or (D) abusive. Admins who insult users, or who fail to properly sanction other users who are insulting someone, or go over the top blocking/banning one person while excusing horrid behavior on the part of others towards that person.
This is the whole problem in a nutshell. Until this fact gets properly impressed on those who sanction this kind of behaviour there will be no end to this kind of ongoing argument.
I have not directly investigsated any of the specific allegations that Parker has made, and I don't intend to. Nor am I interested in whether this or that particular admin is behaving abusively. The generally poiaoned atmosphere that these zealots are instilling is more significant than any individual guilt. The point is that it shouldn't be happening at all.
Until we can find a way to deal seriously and severely with the behaviours that Parker mentioned we cannot hope to build the collaborative community that most of us profess to support. Those of us who have invested serious amounts of time in these projects, and have thought deeply about its underlying principles despair just as much over the actions of the petty tyrants as over the actions of the vandals.
Ec