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

[Stephen Bain]

On 12/22/06, geni <geniice at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 12/22/06, Birgitte SB <birgitte_sb at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > I do not understand what this has to do with non-latin
> > usernames.  This threat is just as real for *all*
> > usernames.  A sockpuppet can be built up on it.WP and
> > do this same damage.  But en.WP does not block italian
> > usernames on sight.  Only non-latin usernames.  How is
> > a non-latin username a greater threat to be a sleeper
> > vandal than a latin username?  I really do not
> > understand the problem in this regard.
>
> Information is the first principle of controling vandles. If there is
> a username you can't read that is an edge you have lost.

Usernames in history pages, contributions lists, etc are all clickable
and can all take you directly to all of the pages you need to know
about to investigate vandal accounts. History pages provide links
directly to userpage, talk page and contributions list. Same with
Recentchanges. If you are a sysop, you also get a direct link to block
the user. Note that these are all necessary steps anyway, even when
one can read the username.

What functionality is impaired by not being able to read the username,
given that MediaWiki makes all these things clickable? If there is
something I haven't thought of then please help me out, I honestly
don't see the problem.

-- 
Stephen Bain
stephen.bain at gmail.com