On 6/18/07, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
Yes, but are good edits through an open proxy an offense per se? That is the one that's a new one to me.
Me too. If I'd considered it an offense per se CW would have been blocked months ago (and lots of other otherwise good editors). I've always erred on the side of "no harm no foul" rather than automatic invocation of rules, given that the rules are to prevent vandalism and disruption rather than to prevent the specific behavior; on frequent occasions, I made the judgment call that even though I'd found an open proxy due to a checkuser request, if the list of users on that open proxy was overwhelmingly legit uses, I wouldn't block the proxy. CW was almost invariably one of the legit users that would lead me to this decision; I did not understand this usage, but in the absence of abuse (or in the case of a single instance of abuse), I felt no call for action. It's possible this selective enforcement of the rules sent the wrong message, at least by default.