[WikiEN-l] Yes, A Reincarnation
Martin Harper
martin at myreddice.freeserve.co.uk
Sun Jun 13 03:47:43 UTC 2004
> The current policy of "ask politely, show evidence,
> consider, block" does not appear to have been followed
> in this case.
Well, certainly it was followed for the JRR account - he was asked, evidence was
shown, we mulled it over, and then Heph blocked. Perfectly in line with that policy. You
may have missed it because it took place over several weeks, but I think it was
exemplary. If anything we perhaps took a little too long mulling over things, perhaps in
part because we had a red herring about whether "troll" in the username is
inappropriate.
> Presumption of innocence which is totally forgotten
In the UK, the burden of proof in criminal cases is "innocent until proven guilty", while
the burden of proof in civil cases is "balance of probabilities", and so forth. Even in the
real world, the presumption of innocence is hardly a universal, and with good reason.
I guess in deciding the burden of proof, one needs to consider the consequences of
making a wrong decision, and the ability of an innocent person to show that they are
innocent. It would be wrong to witch hunt and block on suspicion, but equally it would be
wrong to require evidence that would satisfy a criminal court. There is a balance to be
struck here.
> * blocking is done without AC consideration first to the case
> =>consequence number 1 (block) is saying "we do not trust AC to do what
it should do"
I think our policy on reincarnations is such that the AC doesn't need to consider the
issue first. I was willing to consider it only because the admins seemed to feel unwilling
to block without the backup of a specific arbcom ruling - as that no longer is the case,
our involvement is no longer required, unless Mark and the rest of the community are
unable to come to an agreement on this.
-Martin
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