I object. Putting us all on a war footing is not worth it. When and if Wik accepts the brief ban that was imposed on him is soon enough. If that is never, so be it. It is very difficult to decide whether this or that sockpuppet is really Wik so we will certainly disrupt others if we are too aggressive. Removing stuff from Jimbo's talk page (if indeed it was Wik and not some provocateur) is a really bad idea.

Fred

From: "KNOTT, T" tknott@qcl.org.uk Reply-To: English Wikipedia wikien-l@Wikipedia.org Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 08:38:54 +0100 To: "English Wikipedia" wikien-l@Wikipedia.org Subject: [WikiEN-l] How we should be dealing with Wik

Wik has declared a "War" on Jimbo's talk page. He appears to feel that since there are a large number of proxies he could use, that there is nothing we can do to stop him. I disagree. There is only one of him, and hundreds of us. I suggest we adopt the following approach.

For admins

1. revert anything wik posts no matter what it is or where it is posted

to. (Jimbo has a note on his talk page asking people not to revert, Jimbo would make an exception in this case please, Wik needs to get the message that he is not permitted to post anywhere for a period of 7 days) 2) Block the IP in question for 7 days 2) If he is logged in as a sockpuppet do not bother to warn if you are _sure_ it's him.

For non admins

1. revert as above and make sure you put Wik as the reason in the

summary box. That way any admin RC watching can block the IP in question

For everyone Keep an eye on [[wikipedia:block log]] look out for mistakes by admins, we don't want to block innocents. Check range blocks very carefully to make sure they are legit, done correctly, and have an appropriate message so that innocents don't get confused.

_Do not_ under _any_ circumstances speak to Wik. Not to antagonize him, or to support him. He is banned for 7 days. He is not respecting it but we all should. (Lot's have people have argued that the AC is too reluctant to act, or that they are too powerless; in this case the AC has acted. The AC's authority comes from us, if _we_ don't respect AC rulings then _we_ undermine the AC's power. An important precedent is being set here, no matter how much we hate or love Wik we _must_ support the AC by our own actions)

Keep this up until we have a 7 day period of no posting by Wik. Once the 7 days are up, unblock all Wik accounts and welcome him back (unless the AC decide otherwise in the meantime).

Any objections?

Theresa _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@Wikipedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l

KNOTT, T wrote:

Wik has declared a "War" on Jimbo's talk page. He appears to feel that since there are a large number of proxies he could use, that there is nothing we can do to stop him. I disagree. There is only one of him, and hundreds of us. I suggest we adopt the following approach.

It is not 100% clear to me what the community views the limits of my constitutional powers to be in situation like this. It would be good to have this clarified, so that I could make appropriate proclamations at appropriate times so as to ensure that behavior like this is not implicitly rewarded by the (necesssary) time delays of the arbitration committee.

In my opinion, when a banned user makes direct threats of a "war" including elaborate proclamations as to how he's going to use a large number of proxies, sock puppets, whatever, it would be best for me to firmly and immediately declare that this is an extra-ordinary case and that the ban is extended indefinitely until appeal is made to the arbitration committee.

Such an approach would help to eliminate the unease that people feel that Wik might be allowed back after his week ban is up, since after all, the week ban was implemented *before* he went on this rampage, and clearly these transgressions were far beyond the complex circumstances that led to the ban in the first place.

There is room in wikipedia for tough controversies about what the limits of reverting are, and so on. There is no room for people declaring war on the very concept of a civilized and organized system of decision making.

I don't want to return to the day when I was the sole banning authority - I found that job to be extremely unpleasant. But I think it would be fine, and safe, if it were clear that I still can ban in some extra-ordinary cases, particularly since I would also be honor bound to respect the outcome of an appeal to the arbitration committee.

--Jimbo