Well, first off, there's no guarantee that anyone even knows their real name. They could find mine, sure, but then I've never made an attempt to keep it secret. I suspect many editors never have given out their real name, and publishing a guess would be unethical beyond belief.
But just no, in any case. That seems a purely punitive measure. Certainly, if the person's real identity is known, they might want to inform, for example, site security staff at WMF events, as that's a "need to know" type situation. But I see absolutely no reason to release it to the general public. That's just doxing as a punishment, and I think that's absolutely unethical and we're a lot better than that.
Even if we must ban someone from our communities, we should do everything possible (and everything as far as they'll allow) to let them go in peace and with dignity, and, again if they will, to make a clean break of it. We shouldn't take the opportunity to kick them while they're down, even if the ban was richly deserved.
Todd
On Mon, Jul 1, 2019 at 1:10 PM Thomas Townsend homesec1783@gmail.com wrote:
All,
In an attempt to move the discussion on from unprofitable and inappropriate speculations about information shared in confidence, let's look at one of the aspects that is made public. When the WMF issues a WMF Global Ban in line with https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMF_Global_Ban_Policy it has been in the habit of doing so by login identity or pseudonym as at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMF_Global_Ban_Policy/List
This makes perfect sense in terms of blocking users from logging in, but the bans are not only issued against individuals personally rather than specific account names ("A Foundation global ban is placed against an individual instead of against a specific username") but applies to real-world activities such as events and meetings ("as well as any in-person events hosted, sponsored or funded by the Foundation") for which people tyoically register and pay under a real name.
Has the time not come to for WMF Global Bans to name people under their real names, where known? In answer to one likely objection: this is not outing, since that applies only to members of the Wikimedia community. People subject to WMF Global Bans are no longer members of that community: the ban pernamentaly and irrevocably removes them from membership ("Foundation global bans are final; they are not appealable, not negotiable and not reversible.").
The Turnip
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