the dave ross wrote:
I think it is very unfortunate that we allow individuals (vandals) to have such a huge impact on both the administrative volunteers and the general contributing public. This whole global IP block issue is a result of yet another attempt we have made to stem prolific vandals, and yet another attempt which causes more collateral damage than it prevents vandalism.
[citation needed] Is there any data behind that? Or is it just based on the fact that there have been more complaints about collateral damage than there has praise for stopping vandals?
Why is it that we can't take legal recourse against individuals who persistently vandalize Wikimedia projects? It doesn't seem like it would be hard to claim damages, we spend thousands of hours cleaning up after these people, we have the means to identify them to some extent to authorities. More than once in my experience vandals have been made to account for their actions either legally or through an academic institution, I think that it is long since time that we say enough is enough and put some procedure in place to stop the persistent vandals through legal action.