[WikiEN-l] blocking vandals

[Jimmy Wales]

Poor, Edmund W wrote:
> Banning policy is 100% in the hands of Jimbo, the site owner. He
>apparently favors permanent bans. Since he has the ultimate
>responsibility for the project I hate to second-guess him; but I've
>made my views known.

Actually, I support the idea of automatically expiring bans fully.  I
am not generally in favor of permanent bans.  There could be
exceptions, but usually the point is to ban someone until they get a
grip on themselves.

Not long ago, I suggested that the software be updated so that bans
can have an expiration date.  But beggars can't be choosers, so it's
up to the active developers to implement that.

Also, short-term bans, for a week or month say, would likely be less
controversial generally, so we wouldn't have to sweat them as much.

--Jimbo