In message 20050108165903.93737.qmail@web30104.mail.mud.yahoo.com, Robert Brookes the_robert_brookes-/E1597aS9LQAvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org writes
One assumes that Arwel Parry was acting in good faith when he blocked IP 198.54.202.242. Sadly that is the IP of a server and thus will affect a large number of people if they happen to be members of Wikipedia. Surely there is a more technically precise manner in which to block vandals without blocking members who actually login to edit Wikipedia?
I certainly was, and note that this IP had already received 5 warnings against vandalism in recent months. Sorry for the inconvenience.
It would be helpful if you could supply ranges of any server IP addresses you know, so they could be added to the list displayed on the "block user" screen so we know to go easy on the perpetrators. As it happens, David had unblocked the address about 10 minutes before I got your email, but I couldn't find this address on "whois" when I used Sam Spade, so I still don't know which ISP the address belongs to.