[WikiEN-l] Missed Opportunities to have avoided the Durova Case

[Charlotte Webb]

On 11/27/07, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
> Kirill Lokshin wrote:
> > It *is* actionable.  People have been desysopped for conspiring with
> > banned users.

You might correct that by saying "banned users not named 'Daniel Brandt'".

> Bullshit!  Such an action merely gives greater weight to the content of
> an article than to the person who wrote it.  Just as we don't accept
> that editors should have ownership over an article, so too should we not
> be granting ownership to the banned user.  By undeleting the article the
> particular admin accepts responsibility for the contents of the article
> irrespective of who originally wrote it.

Excellent points again. Of course, the only alternatives to undeleting
the article would be:
1. to re-create it entirely from scratch (i.e. such that one's new
version is not derived from any previous one) lest one run afoul of
the GFDL by failing to properly attribute the previous author(s) for
their work.
2. not to have an article at all, ever. In the majority of cases, this
is not an appropriate solution to consider.

—C.W.