Zoe vs. NIU, Was: Jimbo approves of vandalism! Options

[CrazyGameOfPoker]

Well someone thinks so.

It all seemed so simple. I mean, why not try to get a man in trouble with his employer?

Well then again maybe not.

[everyking]

Normally I agree with Zoe about nothing, but I liked the hard line on this issue. It would be good for people to get the message that this kind of thing is taken seriously by Wikipedia, and that abusing one's position in this manner can have real-world ramifications. I think it is unfortunate that we're sending the message that this kind of thing will be handled with only muted protest and no meaningful action. At this point, the professor may well indulge in this business with future classes, and even more importantly, others may take a liking to this method of undermining or discrediting Wikipedia and do something similar, in the absence of consequences.

[CrazyGameOfPoker]

Normally I agree with Zoe about nothing, but I liked the hard line on this issue. It would be good for people to get the message that this kind of thing is taken seriously by Wikipedia, and that abusing one's position in this manner can have real-world ramifications. I think it is unfortunate that we're sending the message that this kind of thing will be handled with only muted protest and no meaningful action. At this point, the professor may well indulge in this business with future classes, and even more importantly, others may take a liking to this method of undermining or discrediting Wikipedia and do something similar, in the absence of consequences.

Other people pointed it out in the ANI thread though. Why this? Why now? Why the ferocity?

I don't like vandalism on Wikipedia, but at the same time...the response is grossly out of proportion for what happened. A reaction like this has never happened...at least to the best of my recollection in the past 2 years. I mean, I know emails go out to network admins everyonce in a while in order to tell people on their network to stop vandalizing. But to go up the chain of command? No.

I saw Zoe's deleted email subpage. She had emailed Pierce, his supervisor, the PR department, and finally the legal or ethics board. (The latter pretty much said "Have your lawyers contact us, or better yet consult one, since we're pretty sure nothing illegal has been done.")

There's hardline, and then there's harderline, EK. Vandalism hardline? Block the offenders. Harderline? Try to sabotoge a man's career, albeit failing miserably at it.

I've always disagreed with bringing conflicts on the internet into the real world. I've always viewed it as the unwritten contract between users on the internet.

This post has been edited by CrazyGameOfPoker: