On 11/27/07, Matthew Brown morven@gmail.com wrote:
On Nov 27, 2007 7:14 AM, Alec Conroy alecmconroy@gmail.com wrote:
What conspiracy is it that you think I believe?
That, despite what Durova says, despite what several AC members and many other people say, that this couldn't possibly be simply that Durova made an assumption that she shouldn't have made and made a bad block, for all of 75 minutes.
No, I really don't believe it was just an oops, I think it was absolutely inherent in the very way the list was set up. As I've said before, I think the analogy of drunk driving is very apt here. If a drunk driver runs a red light and kills someone, it's not "just" an accident. Any reasonable person could know that driving while intoxicated is highly likely to lead to "accidents".
Secret evidence and secret mailing lists are such a situation. Deprived of the ability for people to fully examine the evidence against them, and more importantly, deprived of the ability for the community to give feedback, is just waiting for the [[User:!!|!!]] to happen again and again and again.
That's the point that still hasn't been made. As far as I know, the whole little "militia" is going to chalk this up to just an "oops" and will continue business as usual.
Who could have forseen that "secret courts" and "secret evidence" would inevitably lead to erroneous bans? I did.
On November 15, Durova raised the hypothetical prospect of secret evidence on this mailing list, and I warned her as strongly as I could that such processes are inevitably going to convinct innocents. http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2007-November/085303.html
And how long did that Cassandra-esque prediction take to come true? A total of 3 days. -- So, yeah, no-- I don't think it was a one-time oops. I predicted a system like this would cause these very problems, and lo and behold, they did.
The question for Arbcom is-- will this secret lists with secret evidence system be allowed to continue to operate (and, I would argue, continue to make more and more false accusations)? or will it stop?
As a participant in the lists, I appreciate your acknowledging your participation, but I can't fathom how we can reasonably expect you to be impartial about your own behavior-- but I'll leave that thread for better persons than myself.
Alec