On 8/22/06, Erik Moeller eloquence@gmail.com wrote:
When too much hard enforcement is used in an open wiki, it often breeds an atmosphere of suspicion, as sock puppetry is difficult to detect and the rules become more difficult to implement.
I should also add that, once a user has decided to "become a sock puppet", they will then also often feel no longer any obligation to follow _any_ rules or processes of the community, except in the interest of avoiding detection and punishment. A user who, in Gregory's words, is branded a "criminal" does not have much respect for policy.
On the other hand, if we allow someone like MyWikiBiz to submit articles through an open process, it will be hard for them to cry foul when a fluff piece is turned into a factual article incorporating criticism.
The WP:COI page is perhaps a bit poorly structured. It is really a process of article submission from interested parties. This is something, I think, we should encourage, and ideally facilitate through our own web services, community and policies, rather than externalizing it in ways which are difficult to track.
Wikipedia has a tradition of soft responses to slightly harmful behavior, which I believe to be the only appropriate strategy in a technically open environment. If we required a real world ID and background check on everyone ever editing Wikipedia, that might be different.