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

[geni]

On 12/22/06, Birgitte SB <birgitte_sb at yahoo.com> wrote:
> We would have a better edge on vandalism if we
> required confirmed email adresses before allowing a
> user to edit.  But the goal of Wikipedia is not
> prevent vandalism at all costs.  I really don't
> understand the particular problem with non-latin
> vandals.  More inforamation is always better but why
> is this information needed for vandal-fighting?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Listusers type in various swear
wods to start searches.

> I
> have never had to type in any username to make a
> block.  Everything is dome by clicking through links.
> Click on  a diff to confirm vandalism, click on block
> to block the user, click on contribs to cleanup the
> mess.  For a major vandal; paste the link to the
> contribs on IRC to solict help.  Whether the username
> is english, bosian, or ????; I am not sure how it
> would make a difference.

Because I can't glance at recent changes and tell whcih of the half
dozen ????? are problem users.

>  What do vandal fighters as
> en.WP do differently than that makes non-latin
> usernames a significant problem?
>

Some of our vandles have trademarks. It is also very hard to come up
with large numbers of legit sounding names in a short timeframe. The
result is that mayn vandles resort to nonsense names. If they can hide
that by useing japanses characters I have lost a way of picking them
up.


-- 
geni