On 9/10/07, Anirudh anirudhsbh@gmail.com wrote:
I think people tend to take more liberty over online social forums on the internet. Wikipedia, as an active community of users can be compared to such websites in more than one ways. And in no way, their "assholery" or misdeeds should be advertised on the internet by making them available in public archives.
It lends a bad name to the project as a whole, and dissuades active and valuable participants to spend their energies building the project. Not everyone can be expected to be on their best online. Please don't give them something that they'd regret later.
I don't see why a valuable and active participant would be discouraged by the fact that bans and behavior records are publicly available. The type of contributor we want to keep around won't be doing anything that they wouldn't want others to be able to see. That is to say, if they're doing something that would result in an action hidden by the type of non-disclosure you're advocating, then they've already demonstrated a lack of valuable behavior.
--Darkwind