Richard Holton wrote:
On en.wikipedia, [[user:The Recycling Troll]] has recently been banned (indefinitely blocked). The reason provided is that he is a reincarnation of 142. However, the evidence so far presented is subjective, and a sort of 'debate' has arisen, the user being blocked and unblocked a few times.
It seems to me that a developer could at least establish if this user is 142 or not. If it turns out to be 142, it would almost certainly end the matter. If not, then the debate could focus on the remaining issue(s).
So, could a developer please look into this? Thanks.
It's not really possible to "establish" someone's identity given the information at our disposal.
What I can clearly say is that recent edits by The Recycling Troll on en.wikipedia.org have not come from an IP address in the 142.177.* range. Note that this is merely an absence of evidence for a purported claim of identity, and has no bearing on whether the account should be blocked for any actual behavior.
-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)