[Foundation-l] Global ban - poetlister?

[James Forrester]

On 3 June 2011 19:22, Risker <risker.wp at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 3 June 2011 13:11, Sue Gardner <sgardner at wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
> > On 3 June 2011 10:00, Risker <risker.wp at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > I too would like to see the development of a process for global banning
> > > of users who have created serious problems on either the global or the
> > > multiple-project level.
> >
> > Is there something the Foundation could do to support that happening?
>
> I tend to agree with Kirill Lokshin about the ability of the WMF as a
> service provider to restrict access to its property in a general sense, for
> the very small number of individuals who have repeatedly abused their access
> across several projects, or more directly by affecting Wikimedians by taking
> "wiki-disputes" into other areas; my estimate would be that we're probably
> talking fewer than a dozen people altogether over the past 10 years who
> might meet this level of abuse.

The English Wikipedia Arbitration Committee has variously (certainly
in 2005-7 a couple of times) approached the Foundation about having
WMF formally ban individuals from access to its online resources,
modelled on the letters that shoplifters often get sent (at least in
the UK), informing them that they are banned for life from the private
property notwithstanding any public inducements to enter (or, in our
world, use or interact with the services), and that failure to comply
will result in action up to and including private prosecution for
trespass. The bar would have to be seriously high for it to be worth
our while (and just because the letter has been issued doesn't mean
they magically go away), but in certain cases I think we should
consider it.

Yours,
-- 
James D. Forrester
jdforrester at wikimedia.org | jdforrester at gmail.com
[[Wikipedia:User:Jdforrester|James F.]]