On 20/10/06, Kelly Martin kelly.lynn.martin@gmail.com wrote:
Given the competence of the average admin on enwiki, I think this is a phenomenally bad idea. Giving select admins the authority to impose all-project blocks for IP addresses or even named users is probably something that is needed, but this is a very powerful privilege and should be extended on a very limited basis with input from multiple projects. Passing a beauty contest on enwiki should not give one the power to block people on commons, dewikt, or frwikisource.
Thinking about it it probably is a bad idea although there are still other options to explore: pan-Wikimedia blockers drawn from the Wikimedia admin population based on history and whatnot.
I would support the Foundation providing an open proxy listing service
to which individual projects could subscribe to or not depending on their particular circumstances. Most projects would subscribe, perhaps with certain exclusions; some, like zhwiki, would probably not subscribe. It would be a project-by-project decision whether or not to subscribe. A DNSBL is the obvious way to do this. Selecting people to maintain this list should be done on a multiproject basis, similar to how stewards or meta admins are elected, or alternatively selected directly by the Foundation.
I think there should also be better communication between projects about vandals. At the moment there is not much warning that a particular IP/username has raised problems on other projects. With single login it will be easier to vandalise from project-to-project. Some kind of meta communication would help tackle these kinds of vandals far more quickly and effectively.
On 21/10/06, Steve Bennett stevage@gmail.com wrote:
Would a "two strikes and you're out" policy (get blocked on two of the sites, get blocked on them all) help?
Two strikes would probably be too few. Admins on one project (say en.wikipedia) are often admins on another (commons). Problem admins having a issues with a user they are more likely to track them down on the other project and block them (particularly if they know that doing so will block the user across Wikimedia). Taking into account who has blocked the user on each project would help.
On 21/10/06, Timwi timwi@gmx.net wrote:
Surely this applies to all Wikimedia projects equally, not just the Chinese Wikipedia.
Of course people should be able to edit from open proxies for this reason (ie. just block anon editing).