[Wikipedia-l] IP blocking

[Jimmy Wales]

Daniel Lee Mayer wrote:
> Is there a message that pops up to explain to a person who has his/her IP 
> blocked that they have their IP blocked? I often wonder if I have offended 
> anyone when I can't access wikipedia at all for several hours to sometimes 
> days from home (and then am able to access it from work or school for a 
> while, then nothing - no other sites seem to be affected). Are these outages 
> normal? Is there a problem with me being behind a firewall? Or am I in fact 
> on somebodies sh*t-list? Just wondering..... 

I hope that IP blocking is very rare and confined to the sort of
character very unlike yourself, i.e. the type of person who just goes
around inserting foul language randomly and the like.  You don't do that,
I imagine.  If you've merely _offended_ someone, that's no excuse for an ip
block.

Is the history of ip blocks made public somewhere?  I should know, but I don't. :-(

> BTW since everyone else that contributes regularly seems to have admit status 
> now, I was wondering if I could also be given that status - for the times 
> when I catch somebody uploading copyrighted material or when a nasty vandal 
> is having fun in the wee hours in the morning. 

Yes, what's your wikipedia id?  (You can answer me in email and we won't need to bother
the list.)

--Jimbo