[WikiEN-l] 172--what happened

[Jimmy Wales]

daniwo59 at aol.com wrote:
> Actually, Eric, I disagree. 
> 
> Trolling is a form of vandalism. This could justly be interpretted as 
> trolling. (I am reminded of the constant edit wars with Helga, which cost 
> Wikipedia quite a lot in terms of time and people who were disgusted and 
> left)

I think, though, that Erik's point is important.  There is what I have
in the past called "simple vandalism", which is behavior that is
outrageous and makes no pretension to be helpful, and which doesn't
really require anything in the way of "due process".  If someone
writes "fart fart fart" on a page, then it's best if any sysop just
deals with it immediately, and that's that.

Cases like Helga are more complex.  You're right of course that it
*is* vandalism in a sense, but we are trying to reserve 'vandalism' as
a technical term of art, with a specific meaning within the context of
wikipedia.

> Given the situation with Lir/.Vera Cruz/Susan Mason as well as
> Michael/Weezer and 172, perhaps its time sysops took more steps to
> limit trolling and not just the "George Washington had big balls"
> kind of vandalism. I open that for discussion.

I think it's a valid subject of discussion.

The problem is that we want to avoid the situation in which sysops run
roughshod over other contributors for political reasons.  This is one
reason why I almost never edit.  That way, I can stay out of the "heat
of the fight" for the cases when I have to step in and make a final
judgment.

--Jimbo