[WikiEN-l] Reverting banned users, and users who engage banned users

[MacGyverMagic/Mgm]

On 3/21/07, Denny Colt <wikidenny at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hello... this is my first post to the actual list (ever). I usually just
> focus on building a few articles, and spend too much time on Recent
> Changes/RC patrol. However... I got inadvertantly pulled into a couple of
> policy related disputes and wanted to put this forward. Two
> questions/propositions, that I posted to the Banning policy today at:
>
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Banning_policy#Reverting_banned_users.2C_and_users_who_engage_banned_users
>
> I wanted to post it here too to get some more visibility since that page
> isn't too active at all...
>
>
> * 1. Reverting banned users: may vs will
>
> The banning policy says, "Any edits made in defiance of a ban may be
> reverted to enforce the ban, regardless of the merits of the edits
> themselves". As the policy gives no leeway for them to post on Wikipedia
> pages anyway, shouldn't this language not contridict the rest of it and
> say
> "will be reverted" instead? Why indulge trolls and troublemakers?


Editors are not forced to revert changes by banned users and why would you
do so on all their edits anyway?
If a change is good for the encyclopedia, you could revert without looking
at its merit, but it would probably be reinsterted by someone else later on.
Not reverting good edits causes less work and in the end improves the
project.

The "can be reverted regardless of the merits"-bit was, I think, included so
edits by banned users can easily be reverted without the editor doing so
being required to research all the edits. If they know something to be true
and reference-able, they don't have to remove it. If they don't know, they
won't be sanctioned for removing it.

Mgm