[WikiEN-l] An observation

[daniwo59 at aol.com]

Hi!

I am a little annoyed by Martin's recent antics, regarding the unblocking of 
vandals, not to mention his defense of the most obvious cases of extreme 
vandalism (the Zog incident comes to mind). It is very difficult to ban someone on 
Wikipedia--in fact, the number of permanently banned users I know of is just 
six (HJ, Ark, Lir, Michael, DW, Zog, some of whom had various incarnations). 
The ability to block an IP (and not a user name) is used to prevent kids from 
adding grafitti to the site. In most cases, it is effective, and those vandals 
disappear once it becomes more challenging to edit. It is not some instance of 
eternal damnation. If the person apologizes and begins to really contribute, 
they are welcomed back. Even in the serious bans above, people have been told 
that if they reform their behaviors they can return and continue to contribute. 
Discuss it with Jimbo and they will be welcomed back. Most don't because they 
have no interest in coming back. 

Wikipedia is a project with a stated objective--creating an encyclopedia. Its 
objective is not to create an ideal democratic society a la Martin's 
perception of one. Nor is it a dumping ground, where anyone can put any crap they want 
in the name of free speech. It is a place that works best by consensus and 
compromise--not by making abrupt decisions that this must be the policy, come h
ell or high water. That is why I was opposed to making a final decision on the 
date format and spelling policies. Look how much time that wasted from the 
overriding goal, when a compromise of allowing people to do what they want seemed 
to be working fine for the most part. Unfortunately, it was Martin pushing 
that finalizing agenda again. 

The end result of all this is that some of the serious long term contributors 
have left--Zoe, for one, was one of the most prolific Wikipedians and a real 
defender of the project against vandalism. While Martin is certainly prolific 
on the Recent Changes, a quick look at his past 500 changes show that his work 
is over 90 percent focused on users' Talk pages, and most of the rest on 
contentious pages, where it is bound to flame the fires of dispute.  

What I would like to see are some solid contributions--an article culled out 
of a Talk page does not count---before wasting our time with the Vandal 
Liberation Front. Instead I wonder when he was made a sysop whether it was to police 
it over the rest of us or to further the goal of creating an encyclopedia. 

Danny
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