[WikiEN-l] /ban pages (was re: Viking ban)

[martin at myreddice.freeserve.co.uk]

Jimbo said: "I, too, object strongly to this practice of creating '/ban' pages as a
place to complain about people.  It seems likely to escalate a
conflict rather than to resolve it."

response copied to [[meta:talk:bans and blocks]], for those who miss the "edit this 
page" button. I know I do. :-)

Can we, between ourselves, find a better solution than /ban pages? Prior to my 
(groundbreaking ;-) creation of the first ever /ban page, best practice seemed to edit 
[[wikipedia:annoying users]], [[wikipedia:vandalism in progress]], [[user talk:USER 
NAME]], [[wikipedia:village pump]], any and all talk pages for articles that the user in 
question had edited, various talk pages of interested sysops ("I think it's Fred", "I 
agree - it's Fred", "It's definitely Fred!", etc), and also to make long posts to the 
mailing list in which one is either "shocked", "appalled", or (ideally) "shocked and 
appalled".

My desires were:
* Single place for discussion - if I want to know "Why was Fred banned?", I should be 
able to go to *one* Wikipedia page, read it, and be enlightened.
* Avoid/discourage redundant discussions
* Ability to refactor away redundancy
* Ability to delete page when a banned user is reinstated, or when calls for banning 
subside and the sweet voice of reason prevails 

Alternatives I can think of immediately:
* Do it on the user talk page
* Have a different name for the page (eg /complaints, /problems, ...)
* Do it on a subpage of [[wikipedia:annoying users]] (eg [[wikipedia:annoying 
users/Fred]])

-Martin "Never met a vandal he didn't like" Harper (aka MyRedDice)