[WikiEN-l] RK temp-banned

[Vicki Rosenzweig]

At 10:15 AM 10/2/03 +0200, Erik wrote:
>Delirium-
> > The vandalizing user talk pages and so on I'll agree is over the line,
> > but I disagree that it warrants a temporary ban.  Simply revert the
> > changes, like we do with everyone else.  We've had plenty of other users
> > who've vandalized pages, including EntmootsOfTrolls and BuddhaInside,
>
>BuddhaInside was instantly banned after vandalism. EntmootsOfTrolls is
>banned now because of threats, I'm not aware of any vandalism by him but I
>can assure you that I or someone else would have banned him had that
>happened to a significant extent.
>
> > among others, who were not summarily banned through the extraordinary
> > use of developer powers.
>
>No use of developer powers was involved. All sysops can ban signed in
>users.

That power is supposed to be used only to enforce an already-existing
ban: it was created to deal with Michael's endless aliases and can
reasonably be used in any similar situation. It doesn't mean that any
sysop--of whom, as you note, there are many--can exclude someone
from Wikipedia. That way lies instability at best.
-- 
Vicki Rosenzweig
vr at redbird.org
http://www.redbird.org