I'm gonna get in some pre-emptive retaliation since I expect this might be about to be discussed...
I've been accused by User/Troll Libertas of being all "creepy" since I revealed "her" location after 172 asked me to investigate whether "she" might be User:Reithy. Libertas claims I've repeatedly revealed "her" location. This is sort of true. I did indeed look up "her" location and reveal it.
(I use "her" throughout since "she" claims to be female, but I distrust trolls...)
I did not use any special powers to find Libertas' IP address. Of course, mere sysops have no such powers. Libertas revealed "her" IP address by editing logged out. 172 then gave me it, and asked me to investigate. I had never been involved with Libertas before.
As far as I recall (the Wiki is much too slow right now to check, so possibly I'm forgetting something), I mentioned the location on the following occasions:
I initially mentioned it on 172's talk page, noting that it differed from Reithy's. I restored it a few times when Libertas edited it (because I don't like my comments being edited) and mentioned it once more in a stupid debate (that Libertas started, by complaining about something I wrote on my userpage about reincarnation) over whether userpages can contain controversial claims.
I regret the last occurence (the gist of which was that if "she" really was from said location, it didn't make sense that "her" userpage was so pro-American, so it looked like it was that way just to stir things up); but I was discounting the possibility of an American living in said place. So that was stupid of me.
Anyway, this culminated in a big blowout on IRC. I don't have a log, alas, but it involved "her" repeatedly claiming that I was acting creepy, behaving like a thug, and threatening "her". "She" also seemed to claim that I knew "she" was female (I didn't) and that this made my discussion of "her" location more disturbing. Curiously, Libertas was happy to reveal "her" location to everyone on IRC during this discussion.
I did apologise on IRC for the last occurence.
But "she" kept on with "her" insults, and finally, becoming Really Bloody Furious (tm) I blocked "her". This was possibly another mistake. I'll step down as a sysop, if people feel I should, but "she" seems like an obvious troll to me.
But I'm tired, and upset, and angry, and going to bed now.
Evercat
Other than refering to her as "User/Troll Libertas" I see no problem here as you seem to understand your errors and how you were led into them. I have had the same problem as I wondered about whether this or that POV editor was a sockpuppet of 172. (None of them seemed to be after investigation and I just made a fool out of myself speculating on it).
Fred
From: Allan Crossman a.crossman@blueyonder.co.uk Reply-To: English Wikipedia wikien-l@Wikipedia.org Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2005 04:47:08 +0000 To: wikien-l@wikipedia.org Subject: [WikiEN-l] Evercat v. Libertas
I'm gonna get in some pre-emptive retaliation since I expect this might be about to be discussed...
I've been accused by User/Troll Libertas of being all "creepy" since I revealed "her" location after 172 asked me to investigate whether "she" might be User:Reithy. Libertas claims I've repeatedly revealed "her" location. This is sort of true. I did indeed look up "her" location and reveal it.
(I use "her" throughout since "she" claims to be female, but I distrust trolls...)
I did not use any special powers to find Libertas' IP address. Of course, mere sysops have no such powers. Libertas revealed "her" IP address by editing logged out. 172 then gave me it, and asked me to investigate. I had never been involved with Libertas before.
As far as I recall (the Wiki is much too slow right now to check, so possibly I'm forgetting something), I mentioned the location on the following occasions:
I initially mentioned it on 172's talk page, noting that it differed from Reithy's. I restored it a few times when Libertas edited it (because I don't like my comments being edited) and mentioned it once more in a stupid debate (that Libertas started, by complaining about something I wrote on my userpage about reincarnation) over whether userpages can contain controversial claims.
I regret the last occurence (the gist of which was that if "she" really was from said location, it didn't make sense that "her" userpage was so pro-American, so it looked like it was that way just to stir things up); but I was discounting the possibility of an American living in said place. So that was stupid of me.
Anyway, this culminated in a big blowout on IRC. I don't have a log, alas, but it involved "her" repeatedly claiming that I was acting creepy, behaving like a thug, and threatening "her". "She" also seemed to claim that I knew "she" was female (I didn't) and that this made my discussion of "her" location more disturbing. Curiously, Libertas was happy to reveal "her" location to everyone on IRC during this discussion.
I did apologise on IRC for the last occurence.
But "she" kept on with "her" insults, and finally, becoming Really Bloody Furious (tm) I blocked "her". This was possibly another mistake. I'll step down as a sysop, if people feel I should, but "she" seems like an obvious troll to me.
But I'm tired, and upset, and angry, and going to bed now.
Evercat
Allan Crossman - a.crossman@blueyonder.co.uk The Moon is Waning Crescent (45% of Full) _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@Wikipedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
I've been accused by User/Troll Libertas of being all "creepy" since I revealed "her" location after 172 asked me to investigate whether "she" might be User:Reithy. Libertas claims I've repeatedly revealed "her" location. This is sort of true. I did indeed look up "her" location and reveal it.
Even though it is very easy to track someones location from their IP, most people do not know that. They feel that their privacy is being violated when someone "reveal" in which nation/city they live and which ISP they use. Therefore I think it is best to respect people's (illusional) privacy and not make them feel violated by revealing personal details. That she felt that she could reveal her location on IRC doesn't matter. If you had a gay aquiantance who on a public forum had written that he is gay, would you feel allowed to go tell the world about his sexuality without permission?
But "she" kept on with "her" insults, and finally, becoming Really Bloody Furious (tm) I blocked "her". This was possibly another mistake. I'll step down as a sysop, if people feel I should, but "she" seems like an obvious troll to me.
I have inspected her edit history for the recent few days and I cannot find any trollish behaviour there. Since that was the only reason you gave for blocking her (irc quarrels doesn't count), stepping down sounds like a good idea.
BJörn Lindqvist wrote:
Even though it is very easy to track someones location from their IP, most people do not know that. They feel that their privacy is being violated when someone "reveal" in which nation/city they live and which ISP they use. Therefore I think it is best to respect people's (illusional) privacy and not make them feel violated by revealing personal details.
You're not doing anyone any favours by contributing to such an illusion. In fact, you may actually be putting them in real danger.