No good. Probably all the mediators and arbitrators need to edit, and fuss, under alternate names to keep bad feelings from developing toward them when they play their mediator or arbitrator role. Fred

I think at least in voting pages and policy discussion pages etc, hiding the real username should be considered harmful. --Optim --- Ray Saintonge <saintonge(a)telus.net> wrote: http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it! http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/

The real username is the user account name. This is allowed --> [[User:tillwe]] This is allowed --> [[User:tillwe|till we *)]] This is disallowed --> [[User:tillwe|Till]] This can be discussed --> [[User:tillwe|Till Westermayer]] This is can be discussed --> [[User:tillwe|Mr. Westermayer]] This is disallowed --> [[User:tillwe|***]] This is dissallowed --> [[User:tillwe|A guy from Freiburg, Germany]] This is bannable behaviour --> [[User:tillwe|Jimbo himself]] This is bannable behaviour --> [[User:optim|till we *)]] when I say "this is allowed" etc I mean "according to my idea". My idea may change according to the input and arguments of other wikipedians, including you. an "attempt to hide your real username" is defined as: Any action which results in inability of other wikipedians to say what your real user account is without examining your userpage link. examining one's userpage link is usually done by using the mouse to point on the link and reading the browser's status bar message which reveals the target address. However, in other environments (PDAs?) or text mode browsers (Lynx?) this may not be so easy. Hypothetically, copying and pasting a discussion will result in loss of the wiki-markup and the links, and if you hide, mask, encrypt, change or whatever your username, it will be impossible to say who you are by reading the pasted content. [[User:tillwe]] is allowed because it is your real username. [[User:tillwe|till we *)]] is allowed because it contains your real username and the possibility to be confused with another username is close to zero. Everything which contains your exact real username is allowed, as long as it cannot create confusion or be misunderstood as another username. [[User:Optim|Optimus]] would be disallowed because another user Optimus may exist and other wikipedians may not immediatelly understand that Optimus=Optim. [[User:Optim|Optim .'.]] is allowed because others wikipedians can normally immediately understand that "Optim .'." is "Optim". The possibility for someone to create a useraccount with decorative text approaches zero. If another useraccount "Optim .'." exists, it would be disallowed for me to use it in my signature. [[User:tillwe|Till]] is disallowed because it creates confusion and can be used as a way to hide your real username. If you want to hide your identity you can logoff and post with an anonymous IP. Also, another useraccount may exist with the name "Till". Not everybody knows your first name, so we should examine the link in order to understand who you are. [[User:tillwe|Till Westermayer]] this can be discussed. I am undecided on this. I want to listen to you and other wikipedians about how they think on this. My initial idea on this: Disallowed because not everybody knows your full name so we cannot say that Till Westermayer is tillwe until we examine the link. However this is your legal name and it is acceptable from a legal POV, so it should be also acceptable in the wiki. For the moment I am undecided. How do you think? [[User:tillwe|Mr. Westermayer]] this can also be discussed. I am undecided on this. I want to listen to you and other wikipedians about how they think on this. My initial idea on this: Disallowed because not everybody knows your last name so we cannot say that Mr. Westermayer is tillwe until we examine the link. However this is your legal name and it is acceptable from a legal POV, so it should be also acceptable in the wiki. For the moment I am undecided. How do you think? [[User:tillwe|***]] this is disallowed because it is an attempt to hide your real username. [[User:tillwe|A guy from Freiburg, Germany]] this is disallowed because it is an attempt to hide your real username. [[User:tillwe|Jimbo himself]] is bannable behaviour because you pretend to be someone else. [[User:optim|till we *)]] is bannable behaviour: it creates confusion until someone examines the Page history. Some people may think that it was me that posted the message. Why we need the prohibition: Someone may vote to delete one of the articles I started and I feel emotionally involved and I don't want it to be deleted. hypothetically I could go to the vfd page and I vote NO with the signature [[User:Optim|Angela]]. I hope you understand why this is bad. Another possibility: I go to the vfd page and I vote NO with the signature [[User:Optim|blablabla]]. My intention would be to make people think that I am another user not emotionally involved in the issue. Only the users who will examine my userpage link will understand who I really was. If someone tells me that it is "illegal" to sign with [[User:Optim|blablabla]] I may request to see an actual policy page which prohibits this kind of signature, etc etc etc... --Optim --- Till Westermayer <till(a)tillwe.de> wrote: http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it! http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/

Anthere wrote: Good point Anthere. I think like all rules this would need common sense and flexibility. You signing as [[User:Anthere|Ant]] is obviously not intended to mislead, me signing as [[User:Sannse|Anthere]] would be rather more questionable, and me signing as [[User:Anthere|Anthere]] would be wrong. Actually in the examples above someone signing as "Jimbo himself" would probably be just a bit of obvious silliness and nothing to get worked up about. --sannse

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . till we *) . . . Hi Optim, why exactly do we need that? Why can't human jugdement and maybe the one or other discussion be enough? Till __ . / / / / ... Till Westermayer - till we *) . . . mailto:till@tillwe.de . www.westermayer.de/till/ . icq 320393072 . Habsburgerstr. 82 . 79104 Freiburg . 0761 55697152 . 0160 96619179 . . . . .

my rationale is that small communities don't need many policies and rules but large communities tend to use them more because they need the policies. As wikipedia becomes more popular, we will face new problems and new trollying behaviour that we will need to fight. We can build the policy from before so that we can be ready when the problem arises. We already have ~200K articles. As we grow, we may attract more troublemakers too. unfortunately... in a large community it is difficult not to use policies and rules. the proposed prohibition is not meant to limit individuality and personal creative expression but to make the life difficult for people who may use "masked" usernames as a means of creating some confusion etc. --Optim --- Anthere <anthere8(a)yahoo.com> wrote: http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it! http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/