[WikiEN-l] [Wikipedia-l] Indefinite ban problem

[John Lee]

On 9/30/07, Daniel R. Tobias <dan at tobias.name> wrote:
>
> On 30 Sep 2007 at 09:46:58 +0100, "David Gerard" <dgerard at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Mmm. Note that a "community ban" on en:wp means "not one of 1000+
> > admins is inclined to unblock you."
>
> Though, in the "some animals are more equal than others" environment
> of Wikipedia, there's a handful of powerful people (sometimes termed
> the "clique" or "cabal") who, if they decide that some banned user is
> Evil Incarnate, will promptly add to their Enemies List any admin
> that dares to unblock such a user, try to shame that admin into
> reversing the action, and agitate for the desysopping or banning of
> the non-groupthink-compatible admin if he/she resists that.


I think some confusion stems from your tossing of phrases like "cabal" into
the mix. From what I understand, there's no organised or co-ordinated effort
to do this; it just naturally happens.

I think it's also important not to overestimate the size of this problem.
For every banned user controversy (of which there are not that many I can
recall), there are dozens if not hundreds of ordinary users still working on
the encyclopaedia and ignoring the whole ruckus. I like to think I'm one of
them, except that I read the mailing list and that I only sporadically still
work on the 'pedia.

Johnleemk