Seems me to be stretching a point _considerably_ to object to someone's username on the basis of it containing the substring "troll".
Even if we grant a) that usernames that are obviously likely to give gross offense need to be dealt with, and b) that serious trolling behavior gives gross offense to Wikipedians, it does NOT follow that c) usernames containing the substring "troll" are grossly offensive to Wikipedians.
Continuing to belabor this point: someone whose username contains the word "troll," who does not, in fact, troll, is not a problem. Someone whose username does not contain the word troll, who does, in fact, troll, is a problem.
It's fair enough to assume that someone with a trollish username might be trying to send a signal, and should expect his/her activities to receive more attention than they might otherwise... but...
Let's act on the basis of what people do, not what their usernames are.
I beg to remain Yr. humble & obdt. servant
The Comptroller
Agreed. Mark
--- dpbsmith@verizon.net wrote:
Seems me to be stretching a point _considerably_ to object to someone's username on the basis of it containing the substring "troll".
Even if we grant a) that usernames that are obviously likely to give gross offense need to be dealt with, and b) that serious trolling behavior gives gross offense to Wikipedians, it does NOT follow that c) usernames containing the substring "troll" are grossly offensive to Wikipedians.
Continuing to belabor this point: someone whose username contains the word "troll," who does not, in fact, troll, is not a problem. Someone whose username does not contain the word troll, who does, in fact, troll, is a problem.
It's fair enough to assume that someone with a trollish username might be trying to send a signal, and should expect his/her activities to receive more attention than they might otherwise... but...
Let's act on the basis of what people do, not what their usernames are.
I beg to remain Yr. humble & obdt. servant
The Comptroller
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Please keep in mind that it is only the name which is banned, not the user, who is free to select a new name and move on.
Fred
From: dpbsmith@verizon.net Reply-To: English Wikipedia wikien-l@Wikipedia.org Date: Fri, 7 May 2004 13:12:39 -0500 To: wikien-l@Wikipedia.org Subject: [WikiEN-l] Usernames: sense of proportion
Seems me to be stretching a point _considerably_ to object to someone's username on the basis of it containing the substring "troll".
Even if we grant a) that usernames that are obviously likely to give gross offense need to be dealt with, and b) that serious trolling behavior gives gross offense to Wikipedians, it does NOT follow that c) usernames containing the substring "troll" are grossly offensive to Wikipedians.
Continuing to belabor this point: someone whose username contains the word "troll," who does not, in fact, troll, is not a problem. Someone whose username does not contain the word troll, who does, in fact, troll, is a problem.
It's fair enough to assume that someone with a trollish username might be trying to send a signal, and should expect his/her activities to receive more attention than they might otherwise... but...
Let's act on the basis of what people do, not what their usernames are.
I beg to remain Yr. humble & obdt. servant
The Comptroller
WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@Wikipedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Charles Matthews wrote:
Seems me to be stretching a point _considerably_ to object to someone's username on the basis of it containing the substring "troll".
Disagree. Atmosphere matters. The whole troll-culture poisons the atmosphere. It isn't 'amusing' or even 'outlaw'.
It's not about "troll-culture"; (whatever that is); it's about the right to choose a name. The poisoned atmosphere comes the self-righteous crowd that goes around making all these petty complaints.
Ec
"Ray Saintonge" wrote
It's not about "troll-culture"; (whatever that is); it's about the right to choose a name. The poisoned atmosphere comes the self-righteous crowd that goes around making all these petty complaints.
If you don't _know_ troll-culture, that would be a bit of a disqualification?
No right to choose an in-your-face-name. What has that to do with writing an encyclopedia?
Charles
Charles Matthews wrote:
"Ray Saintonge" wrote
It's not about "troll-culture"; (whatever that is); it's about the right to choose a name. The poisoned atmosphere comes the self-righteous crowd that goes around making all these petty complaints.
If you don't _know_ troll-culture, that would be a bit of a disqualification?
No right to choose an in-your-face-name. What has that to do with writing an encyclopedia?
That last point is the important one. If someone chooses an in-your-face name I am not likely to complain about the name, but I admit that I will look at his edits more critically than if he had chosen something less controversial. If his edits are consistently fair and satisfactory I will eventually ignore the name, and no-one will have noticed how much scrutiny I have applied to those edits.
Ec
I agree, and am a little disturbed by a couple of recent bans I have seen. There may be good cause for them, but no explanation has been given to users who have asked for it. I think blocks and bans should be based solely on behavior (except in cases of obscene, blasphemous or personal attack names) and that there should be a forum where users can ask for explanations of bans and blocks and expect a reasonable response (ie more than 'Good - I hope you get banned too). Mark
--- Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
Charles Matthews wrote:
"Ray Saintonge" wrote
It's not about "troll-culture"; (whatever that
is); it's about the right
to choose a name. The poisoned atmosphere comes
the self-righteous
crowd that goes around making all these petty
complaints.
If you don't _know_ troll-culture, that would be a
bit of a
disqualification?
No right to choose an in-your-face-name. What has
that to do with writing
an encyclopedia?
That last point is the important one. If someone chooses an in-your-face name I am not likely to complain about the name, but I admit that I will look at his edits more critically than if he had chosen something less controversial. If his edits are consistently fair and satisfactory I will eventually ignore the name, and no-one will have noticed how much scrutiny I have applied to those edits.
Ec
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