[WikiEN-l] SlimVirgin and CheckUser leaks

[SlimVirgin]

On 7/22/08, Florence Devouard <Anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Thatcher131 Wikipedia wrote:
>  > First, on the issue of notification.  My personal approach is that if
>  > someone asks me, "Have I been checkusered," I will answer yes or no.
>  > I will not identify the checkuser, because I can not speak for why
>  > that checkuser ran the check, but I will offer to notify the checkuser
>  > that the editor in question would like to discuss the matter.  Then it
>  > is up to the checkuser who ran the check to decide whether or not to
>  > respond ...
>
> Regardless of the current issue at stake, I like James approach on top
>  of Sarah's one. It is at the same time very respectful to the person
>  asking for information, but also very respectful of the checkuser.
>
>  I think it is fair that a user could ask if he was checkusered and if he
>  was, to be informed when he was.
>  However, the user should not get the name of the checkuser who did the
>  check, but this latter should receive a notification of the request. I
>  also think he should be given the freedom to answer or not.

Ant, the name of the checkuser is important. In two of the cases where
I've been checked, it was by checkusers who had personal issues with
me. The first was Kelly Martin in 2005, at the height of Wikipedia
Review trying to find out where I live. She had always disliked me,
and she checkusered me, for no reason that she was ever able to give.
The second was Lar, someone who posts regularly to Wikipedia Review,
which frequently publishes false and very damaging allegations about
me, not just criticism of me as a Wikipedian.

Just as admins shouldn't use the tools against people they appear to
be in dispute with, so too with checkusers. It's common sense, but we
seem to have checkusers who lack that. That means editors need to be
given the right to know whether people they're in dispute with have
tried to find out where they live. That will stop it from happening
overnight.

Sarah