On Sat, Nov 7, 2009 at 8:33 PM, WJhonson@aol.com wrote:
In a message dated 11/7/2009 10:56:27 AM Pacific Standard Time, andreengels@gmail.com writes:
We tried that on nl: (although with 1 week rather than 24 hours minimum). The effect of this is that _each and every block_ will get the whole wiki in flames for a week.>>
I would submit that this tells you something very significant. The community likes freedom, and they don't like the suppression of freedom.
No, it means that whoever you block there will always be *someone* who is against it and makes an issue out of it that the block is unfair etcetera. It does not mean that *the community* is of that opinion.
The police do not like freedom, and they do like to suppress it. When a group of police decide to gang up on a contributor, that contributor has no "friend" on their side. You cannot appeal to the police to stop the police.
You can appeal to other sysops, to the arbcom, to the community. What you are proposing is to have *every* case be appealed to the community automatically. There are always some people who are of the opinion that if you have made personal attacks 30 times that is still 20 times too few to be blocked.
That's my main point. However it has to be worked out. We need a contrasting force, that is dedicated to the freedom of the contributor.
No, we don't. We need forces to help the encyclopedia get further. We don't need a force of people who stop people who are helping creating it, and we don't need a force of people who support people who are not helping creating it.