[WikiEN-l] Editing with open proxies

[Anthony]

On 6/18/07, Slim Virgin <slimvirgin at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 6/18/07, Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org> wrote:
> > On 6/18/07, Slim Virgin <slimvirgin at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > As I see it, what we need to start doing as a minimum, is stop
> > > promoting people who've spent a few months hitting revert every few
> > > seconds. That kind of profile tells us nothing about the person, and
> > > it's too easy to build up several accounts that way. And we need to
> > > ditch the "it's no big deal" thing. It's not for us to decide that
> > > it's "no big deal" when hurtful material deleted from Wikipedia ends
> > > up on Wikitruth, just because the material's not about us. The
> > > existence of Wikitruth is a direct consequence of the "it's no big
> > > deal" mentality.
> > >
> > I think it's far too late for that, and that the only solution is to
> > embrace the "it's no big deal" mentality.  Any information which is a
> > [[clear and present danger]] should be oversighted and taken away from
> > the view of even the admins.
> >
> Then you have to trust the oversighters.
>
Sure, but you don't need as many oversighters as you do admins.  The
vast majority of deletions and undeletions aren't of materials that
pose a clear and present danger.  Plus deletion isn't the only task
which requires adminship to perform.

> Look, Wikitruth was able to evolve because we regarded adminship as
> "no big deal" while giving admins access to deleted material. That
> meant we regarded undeleting deleted material as "no big deal." When
> it started happening, we realized that in fact it was biggish, and we
> developed oversight, which is restricted to fewer people than
> adminship.
>
> But the people with oversight are selected by the community (most of
> whom are unknown) from the set of current admins (most of whom are
> unknown). So in fact, nothing has changed.
>
> All that has to happen now is for Wikitruth (or anyone else interested
> in causing trouble) to get someone on the ArbCom so they have access
> to oversight. It's only a matter of time before it happens.
>
> This is the rule of evolution. Niches will be filled. The only way to
> thwart it is to anticipate and fill the niches ahead of time. We seem
> to be very bad at doing that.
>
> What I am arguing here and elsewhere is that one of the very obvious
> niches is that people can get to be admins by hitting revert for a few
> months. I think we need to put a stop to that.
>
I think if you do put a stop to that, Wikipedia won't have enough
admins to handle the tasks at hand.