[Foundation-l] English Wikipedia ethnocentric policy affects other communities

[Sam Korn]

On 12/21/06, Aphaia <aphaia at gmail.com> wrote:
> Sam, I don't think those vandal fighters act on a bad faith, but on
> the other hand, editors with a good reputation at least on their home
> wiki have been blocked due to their username and even not allowed to
> edit anonymously.

Yes, absolutely.  I agree with the existence of a problem here, a
problem that will only be exacerbated by the implementation of SUL.

> They are astonished in blocking and perplexed rather angry.

And reasonably so.

An editor
> said "I tried to find why I was deserved permanently blocked but
> couldn't find a discussion".

This is a problem that needs addressing.  No argument.

After unilateral decision of blocking, no
> discussion and "encouragement" of changing username, it is hard to
> agree on that they don't want to do so, and it is generally not
> pursuasive to argue "we don't want to do but we need to", specially if
> alternative ways, like modified signatures, checking contribs and
> alike are proposed and you reject all of those alternative.

You won't find me defending the current en.wikipedia policy -- I think
it's over-done and, to repeat my cliché analogy, cracking a walnut
with a sledgehammer.  What I want to see is some recognition from the
people on this list that there is a problem that has caused this
overblown solution and that that problem needs addressing.  I haven't
rejected the alternatives that you mention -- nor have I considered
them in depth to get an understanding of their practicalities -- so
please don't put words in my mouth.

-- 
Sam