[WikiEN-l] Moderation on this mailing list

[William Pietri]

Mark Ryan wrote:
> For transparency, the moderated user "countpointercount" has the
> following message for subscribers to the mailing list:
>
> 'Your "moderators" are now claiming that any reporting of abusive
> administrators is a "personal attack." This is obvious coverup
> behavior.'
>
>
> This is in response to my rejection of two emails, both of which I
> considered to contain personal attacks because they called various
> administrators 'abusive' etc. What are the thoughts of subscribers to
> the list on this? What would the appropriate course of action have
> been?
>   

Having  been cc'd on one of those rejected messages, I think you made 
the right decision.

I looked into the user in question, and he was being contentious and 
difficult on AIV within 30 minutes of creating his account. I'd give 
10:1 odds that he's a sockpuppet doing the standard 
I'm-really-not-a-sockpuppet dance. His refusal to calm down and the 
stridency of his accusations aren't helping, either.

On the off chance that his he's really a well-meaning user, it seems to 
me that he doesn't have a lot invested in that account, and he's already 
gotten himself a bad reputation. If he's still following this list, I'd 
suggest that he just let this incident go and take a month's break from 
Wikipedia. Then when he has cooled down, he can start fresh with a new 
account. As long as he becomes a good contributor and  behaves 
appropriately, nobody will know or care that he once got off on the 
wrong foot.


I know some people are concerned that this is censorship, and is 
blocking an avenue of appeal. If people are really worried about that, 
we could create another list where we try to sort the wheat from the 
chaff and talk down from the ledge people who are upset, legitimately or 
not. Something between an ombudsman, a help desk, and a therapist. I'd 
rather not see that traffic on this list, but I'm glad to serve on that 
other list.

William