[WikiEN-l] Bitey behavior

[Guy Chapman aka JzG]

On Tue, 06 Nov 2007 16:06:49 -0500, Cary Bass <cbass at wikimedia.org>
wrote:

>In hindsight (and having spoken to the user on the phone) he has a 
>limited command of English.  A short duration block while some 
>explaining on the talk page would have been the proper response.  It 
>doesn't mean that the user is worth having on Wikipedia--but I do know 
>of several individuals who started out as spammers and turned into good 
>contributors.

Stephen B. Streater being an example - but he wasn't a *spammer* as
such, just a reasonably notable individual writing about his own
endeavours. 

I would not like to speculate on the ratio of genuine spammers to
well-intentioned people with poor command of English.  I suspect
that those who add only links are more likely to be evil spammers.

Guy (JzG)
-- 
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:JzG