On Dec 12, 2007 9:55 AM, elisabeth bauer eflebeth@googlemail.com wrote:
2007/12/12, Florence Devouard Anthere9@yahoo.com:
Making it mandatory to publicly log checkusers actions
Not sure how that would work, as the actions of checkusers often reveals the results.
True. German wikipedia does that. Not sure what the impacts are with regards to privacy policy.
Maybe I should clarify here: In the german wikipedia, all checkuser requests are requested in public (other wikipedias have a similar request page). On this page the requester has to provide two things: a) evidence why a sockpuppet suspicion seems likely and b) explain why it would be an abuse of sockpuppets.
The checkusers accept or deny the request and - if we made a check - say if the suspicion was correct or false (and eventually list additional sockpuppets if found)
Ah, I misunderstood. I thought the suggestion was to make the raw logs public. Doing something like this, where the requests and results had to be made public, and anyone caught making a checkuser request outside this procedure had her privileges removed, wouldn't reveal the particular private information. OTOH, I don't think promoting public accusations of sockpuppetry is a good thing, at least not on a Wikipedia like the English Wikipedia where mean-spirited accusations run rampant. Maybe the Germans can play nicely, but I don't think it'd be pretty on en.wp.