On 11/27/07, Guy Chapman aka JzG guy.chapman@spamcop.net wrote:
On Tue, 27 Nov 2007 11:04:50 -0500, "Wily D" wilydoppelganger@gmail.com wrote:
One could hope, but a lot of us are genuinely afraid that trying to write an encyclopaedia is going to get us banned for various reasons, and would like to feel safe that we're not going to wake up banned as a sockpuppet of Wikipedia Review member X or whatnot.
That's *extremely* unlikely to happen, *especially* if you are using and have only ever used one account.
Sure, it happened once. Hands up anyone who wants to try it again? Any takers? Not me, I can tell you.
Guy (JzG)
No offenve, JzG, but your reassurances aren't very reassuring. I have no idea how often something like this has happened, nor do I have any idea how likely it is to happen in the future. We're talking about a ban based on essentially no evidence, that could happen to anyone, with no hope of appeal other than "popularity". Should I believe I have enough clout to get myself unbanned if I'm banned on secret evidence I can't question or know anything about? I might be able to (one Wikipedian of some prominance knows my real life identity, and might help me out if I asked nice-like) but should we be telling more "paltry" editors that nobody cares if they get banned over nothing and nobody will help them?
It'd probably be easy enough to make a case against me as strong as the one against !! - I cited a source for my data in my very first edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Local_Group&diff=prev&... Figured out immeadiately that I should sign edits: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Local_Group&diff=prev&... Demonstrated knowledge of redirects by edit five: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Alpher-Bethe-Gamow_paper&... Demonstrated knowledge of the "Vandalism" lingo by edit 17: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Arrested_Development_%28TV_se... My 23rd edit shows I have some clue of what's going on, using the term "encyclopaedic" at an AfD: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Co... Heck, here I am proposing an article for deletion around edit 30: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Fr...
It goes on and on. Anyone familiar with wikis and with a prediliction for reading instructions is going to look like a returning user if your evidence standards are shabby. The real trouble is ''How do get a ban undone if I cannot find out why I was banned?'' - The answer is almost certainly ''I cannot''. !! got his ban overturned because he was popular - how popular am I? Enough? I don't know ...
Dismissing the fears of (at least two members of) the community simply because you think they're overblown is not the way to create a positive working space. Overblown are not, they are a reasonable result of what's going on, and the uncertainty caused by the lack of knowledge most editors have. Every edit I've made to [[WP:NPA]], [[WT:NPA]] and [WP&WT:LINKLOVE]] has left a sinking feeling in my heart I'm going to see a blocked notice next time I log in. I'm not the only one ... if we want to create a good environment from working, we need to free productive, helpful, good faith authors and editors from the quite reasonable fear they could wake up with an uncontestable block.
Cheers WilyD