[WikiEN-l] I will be leaving the project
Phil Sandifer
sandifer at sbcglobal.net
Mon Jun 20 21:13:24 UTC 2005
The rules do not have any innate value. That is to say, the mere fact
that something is in the rules does not make it right, any more than
its absence from the rules makes it wrong. Sysops are not expected to
be mechanical robots in enforcing the 3RR or any other rule. This
doesn't mean people are above the rules. It means that sysops are not
obliged to block in every case.
One of the things that should always play into a decision about
blocking is the good faith of the contributor, the necessity of the
block in getting the point across, and the nature of the dispute.
Frankly, Rick's block wasn't cut and dry - removing copyvio
absolutely should not count as a 3RR revert, and there's no reason to
think that Rick did not sincerely see a copyvio problem. And it's
important to err on the side of protecting Wikipedia from lawsuit
with copyvio - if there's a reasonable suspicion, remove first, then
spend the time sorting it out.
Which isn't to say that Rick handled this well. He didn't. it is,
however, to say that he did not handle it so badly as to deserve the
abject slap in the face that this block was. And he's right to be
pissed - I would be.
I hope Silsor intends to spend a LOT more time than he has browsing
recent changes and dealing with the abject stupidity that Rick was
our first line of defense against. Because otherwise, that block just
hurt the project a lot.
-Snowspinner
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