[WikiEN-l] WP:DENY is a steaming pile of crap.

[Steve Bennett]

On 11/8/07, Daniel R. Tobias <dan at tobias.name> wrote:
>
> That sounds a lot like the Orwellian "Unperson", or Scientology
> "Suppressive Person", concepts, and can be really unfair to people
> who are unjustly labeled this way.  Didn't an early version of WP:NPA
>
> Well of course it should be possible to be unlabelled. But there are some
advantages to this model:

- There's a very strong incentive not to be mistaken for a troll, in case
there was any doubt.
- It saves everyone a lot of time if you actually are a troll.
- If you're a troll, and have been labelled, you're going to have to really
try hard to get unlabelled. And you'll think twice about being trollish next
time.

My definition of troll is basically someone who enjoys conversations about
themselves, and particularly their behaviour, at the expense of getting work
done. The good ones usually have both supporters and detractors, because
they are nice to some people and mean to others. The exceptionally good ones
are nice to those with genuine authority (ie, the power to block them), but
torture people with symbolic authority or rarely-used powers ("don't make me
block you, I haven't blocked anyone in years"). They relish the challenge of
making people second guess their character judgments.

And in any given discussion of their behaviour half the people will be going
"look at all these great things he's done" and the other half will be going
"look what a prat he is". And everyone's time is wasted.

Far better solution: when it's obvious there is trollish behaviour, label
and ban, and leave open just one small avenue for redemption which will
require hard work and will waste the time of only a couple of people who
genuinely care.

Steve