Anthere-
But there are very numerous policies that have to be
decided by each
local community. The policy of banning on en is not the *correct* policy
to handle difficult user, it is *one* point of view among other. A pov
that might fit the cultural background of en users, but not of all
wikipedias.
I doubt that there's any substantial cultural difference when it comes to
banning *vandals* - and that's all the banning feature is for, other bans
have to be authorized by Jimbo. Wheter you're in Beijing, in Stockholm, in
Chicago or in Tokyo, if someone enters your home and destroys your stuff,
you probably want to throw them out. There may well be cultural
differences when it comes to banning people who misbehave in other ways,
but this is not at all affected by the banning policy on En: - sysops are
*not* allowed to ban signed in users for non-vandalism.
Making this policy consistent across all wikis makes sense because it
makes the non-English wikis less dependent on help from the English one.
No need to call for help from California (Brion) or Florida (Jimbo) when a
signed in vandal runs amok on the French Wikipedia. The current policy is
discriminatory to the non-English wikis -- it gives the En-Wikipedia a
useful tool and keeps it away from the others, under the false pretense
that they can't handle this kind of responsibility. I for one trust the
non-English Wikipedias that they will use banning of signed in users
responsibly if they are informed of the limitations.
This should be announced first and any serious objections should be dealt
with, until near unanimous consensus is reached.
Regards,
Erik