[Foundation-l] CheckUser (thoughts)

[Jesse Martin]

On 4/22/06, Anthere <Anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> We should not have checkusers with the tool access on a one project/one
> language, but a POOL of COMMON checkusers. Those should all have good
> technical abilities. Those would have access everywhere. They would be
> listed on meta with their language ability. The biggest projects would
> be used to always ask to their favorites. The small languages will try
> to find the one with a basic knowledge of their language if they wish.
>
> But all in all, checkusers should be a common good, just as our
> developers right now are (and, hell, just as your board members are).
>
> Ant

I agree with this proposal.

The smaller wikis cannot benefit from checks because there are far too few
users with global CheckUser access; on the other hand, they cannot have
local checks because their candidates are unknown to and not trusted by the
wider community. Local CheckUser access furthermore causes previously
discussed confidentiality problems, since the number of users required would
be disproportionately high in order to serve every project in need.

Having a relatively small number of users with global CheckUser access,
perhaps combined with the proposed 'Guest' CheckUser process, will much
better serve a middle ground between access and confidentiality. These users
would probably be most active on projects they participate most in, serving
as the de facto local CheckUser agents. Projects without such local agents
would likely still be forced to wait, but the larger number of CheckUser
agents may help alleviate waiting times on the Meta request page.

-- Jesse Martin ([[User:Pathoschild]])