On 22/06/05, David Gerard fun@thingy.apana.org.au wrote:
Tim Starling (t.starling@physics.unimelb.edu.au) [050622 10:39]:
Are there any objections to this? I'm accustomed to all blocking-related features being controversial, but this one seems to be unusually well-supported.
It would certainly make 3RR blocks much less controversial.
Mind you, I'm now trying to think of possible social side effects.
There's really not much to object to about it; you're not giving admins a more powerful tool, you're giving them a more nuanced one. It allows blockings for vandalism ("we don't trust you to edit wiki at all") to be differentiated from blockings related to a specific article ("we think you should go cool off somewhere else"), and as such is less likely to cause someone to react angrily to a block.
It also removes a lot of the tensions you get from page protection - I've seen, as I recall, one massive fight because a protected page was briefly unprotected so someone could (gasp!) re-format the list of references, which was clearly a massive misuse of admin powers, condoning of vandalism, what have you - because in many cases the page wouldn't be protected generally, but the two or three warring editors blocked from editing it. It'd remain otherwise open - though presumably closely watched with an eye to blocking/protection for "unrelated" edits.
On the other hand, once you have this in place, a general block becomes a much more significant thing - there's your negative social effect. A short "article block" is one thing, but to block them from editing *anywhere*! Massive abuse of power! Disproportionate response! &c. So that's an effect; whether it's positive or negative is arguable.