Exactly how are newbies *supposed* to act? If they come in all clueless, blundering around ineptly, they're likely to get bitten, especially if something they say or do in the course of their random flailing is (mis)interpreted as a personal attack or legal threat, getting them into a spiral towards indef banning they have no easy way of averting given their lack of knowledge of all the arcane rules and procedures that get tossed at them.
On the other hand, if they act like they know what they're doing, and actually get through any of the convoluted procedural stuff correctly, that proves they're a sockpuppet. Ban them!
What was it someone once said.
Block everybody, those who know how to use an unblock template are socks and the rest aren't.
Scoff, Nick
On 02/12/2007, Daniel R. Tobias dan@tobias.name wrote:
Exactly how are newbies *supposed* to act? If they come in all clueless, blundering around ineptly, they're likely to get bitten, especially if something they say or do in the course of their random flailing is (mis)interpreted as a personal attack or legal threat, getting them into a spiral towards indef banning they have no easy way of averting given their lack of knowledge of all the arcane rules and procedures that get tossed at them.
On the other hand, if they act like they know what they're doing, and actually get through any of the convoluted procedural stuff correctly, that proves they're a sockpuppet. Ban them!
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Nick wrote:
What was it someone once said.
Block everybody, those who know how to use an unblock template are socks and the rest aren't.
"Block 'em all, let the God-king sort them out"?
Though since Jimbo's delegated most of his work to the ArbCom I guess that means all new user accounts should be refered to ArbCom to be vetted before they're allowed to edit.
So very glad I ultimately decided not to run in this election (Sorry, Charlotte. :)
On Sun, 02 Dec 2007 18:05:01 -0500, "Daniel R. Tobias" dan@tobias.name wrote:
Exactly how are newbies *supposed* to act? If they come in all clueless, blundering around ineptly, they're likely to get bitten, especially if something they say or do in the course of their random flailing is (mis)interpreted as a personal attack or legal threat,
Depends how aggressive they are.
Guy (JzG)
On 02/12/2007, Daniel R. Tobias dan@tobias.name wrote:
Exactly how are newbies *supposed* to act? If they come in all clueless, blundering around ineptly, they're likely to get bitten, especially if something they say or do in the course of their random flailing is (mis)interpreted as a personal attack or legal threat, getting them into a spiral towards indef banning they have no easy way of averting given their lack of knowledge of all the arcane rules and procedures that get tossed at them.
On the other hand, if they act like they know what they're doing, and actually get through any of the convoluted procedural stuff correctly, that proves they're a sockpuppet. Ban them!
This is where trying to put them on rails comes in. Only new users use fromowner and one of the intended features is to limit the amount they can screw up (doesn't entirely work since they seem to have a knack for creating messy copyright situations).
On 02/12/2007, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
This is where trying to put them on rails comes in.
Ah yes, I seem to recall hearing people talk about this "Newbie on Rails", apparently it's a very popular system for web-based applications...
(sorry, couldn't resist)
On 12/2/07, Daniel R. Tobias dan@tobias.name wrote:
Exactly how are newbies *supposed* to act?
Thank you sir may I please have another. (Just kidding)
Ideally, if they slip up, their first "admonishment" should be civil. At that point they should back up and familiarize themselves with the relevant policy and guidelines. If they still think they are right, then they should politely make their case on the relevant talk page. What they should not do is continue to do what got them admonished. This is what leads them down the block/ban/sock road.
However, if their first "admonishment" is not civil, then that's WP:BITE.