[WikiEN-l] The boundaries of OR (contd)

[Stan Shebs]

Marc Riddell wrote:
>   
>> From: Stan Shebs <stanshebs at earthlink.net>
>> Reply-To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l at Wikipedia.org>
>> Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2006 13:54:50 -0800
>> To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l at Wikipedia.org>
>> Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] The boundaries of OR (contd)
>>
>> Marc Riddell wrote:
>>     
>>> Back to some basics of my argument, or proposal, or whatever it has become:
>>> I am not talking about 'experts'. If I see an edit has been made to an
>>> Article in WP I would like to be able go to that Article's History Page and
>>> see the 'source' (person) of that edit, with a User Name in Blue. Then, if I
>>> choose, I can go to that corresponding User Page and learn something about
>>> that editor - it really is that simple!
>>>
>>>       
>> Well, if you just want a "it would be nice if", we already encourage
>> people to create accounts and to tell us a little about themselves. So
>> now I don't know why you're even bringing this up.
>>
>> Stan
>>     
>
> Stan,
>
> I didn't & don't use the phrase "it would be nice if". "Encourage" should
> become "insist" - that's why I brought it up.
>   
OK then, you want to "insist" that they supply information about 
themselves - that means you're talking policy that we enforce, not just 
a guideline or a general recommendation. How much information? Can a 
person be banned because of a user page that doesn't list every degree 
earned? If not, then how do you enforce your insistence that they share 
their personal details? What if the information is not true? How is 
anybody going to tell anyway? There are a lot of "John Smith"s in the 
world - you'd need a government ID to reliably determine which ones 
actually graduated from MIT in 1982, and I don't think the Foundation 
really wants to be in the business of user authentication, not least 
because many countries have strict privacy laws that would require a 
major rewrite of the wiki software in order to meet the legal requirements.

WP oldtimers really have thought all this through already.

Stan