"William sauntered slowly down the road towards school. His person was freely decorated with bandages that were the results of a skirmish between William and a new geyser that his family had lately had installed.

"The man who installed it had said in answer to Mrs Brown's enquiries: 'No, Madam, it's a new model and it can't possibly explode. I defy anyone,' he had added, 'to make this geyser explode.' It was a very foolish thing to say in the hearing of William, but then, of course, he did not know William. William had accepted the statement as a challenge, and had worked hard and conscientiously on the new geyser till he made it explode. When finally they picked him up from the debris (after ascertaining that the house still stood!) his first remark had been a triumphant: 'There! And he said it couldn't explode!'"

The story goes on to say how William saw himself as a seeker of truth and justice, and his conscience was clear, even if he was covered with bandages and he could tell little girls that his whole face had been burnt off, except for his eyes.

Well, like William, I put truth and justice above geysers, and perhaps I'm being foolish in pointing out loopholes in the system, but here goes.

Purely as a hypothetical, let's say that I've been hauled up before the Grand Jury, found to be a naughty Wikipedian and banned. I don't agree with the decision, in fact I think the Grand Jury has its head up its bum, but that's not important. The effect of banning an editor is akin to being pulled over by the cops, but instead of putting the driver in prison or fining him or taking away his licence, they take away his licence plate. He can still drive, but now he's not identifiable!

Doesn't this encourage bad behaviour instead of good?

Yeah, I know that the IP address can be blocked, but IP addresses are easy to come by in these days of internet cafes, wifi hotspots and cheap dialup. When I'm on the road I don't have access to my ADSL, so I tend to go down to Starbucks and have a cuppa while I check my email, or duck into whatever internet shop I'm passing and buy an hour or so. Libraries and universities are another good place for free Internet.

The bottom line is that if I know a certain Irish editor is an arrogant idiot, then I can correct his stupid mistakes, fix his wretched grammar, and adjust his spelling to conform to dictionary standards, and what are you gunna do? Revert obvious improvements?

And if I know that a certain Melbourne editor is a bully with a short fuse, then just how can anyone stop me from lighting it? Getting an abusive editor out of Wikipedia seems like a bloody good idea to me.

All with the firm intention of improving Wikipedia, of course. And giving myself a glow of righeousness.