Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 12:40:58 -0700
From: Jimmy Wales <[email protected]>
Subject: [WikiEN-l] Joe Canuck
To: [email protected]
Joe Canuck is banned from wikipedia. Would someone with the appropriate powers please take the appropriate steps to make this technically true.
As always, Joe is invited to write to me to discuss this further, and/or is invited to the mailing list.
Some have expressed a strong conviction that Joe Canuck is the same person or persons as DW, etc. I express no opinion on that matter, and find that Canuck's actions alone are sufficient for banning. To the extent that it is true, of course, then just being the same person is grounds for a continuation of the ban.
--Jimbo
The above mailing list post is archived here.
Jimmy Wales [email protected] Fri, 27 Jun 2003 12:17:58 -0700
"Wikipedians should generally refrain from witch hunts of users who may be reincarnations of banned users."
However, grave concerns have been raised, and I have reason to think, based on what's been going on the past few days, that ChuckM, Joe Canuck, DW/Black Widow, and perhaps some others may (or may not) be the same person, posting repeatedly on the same sorts of topics and in the same sorts of obnoxious ways.
So, after a bit of research by one of the sysops, who will remain nameless unless he wants to take public credit, we've determined that there is a relatively small block of ip numbers where this user is coming from. At least through the weekend, we're going to block all of those completely.
Next Monday morning, we'll assess whether it worked, and discuss when to unblock that range of addresses. It seems unfortunate in case people in a certain ip block in Canada happen to want to edit this weekend, but odds are, they won't.
Additionally, any and all of those names can be banned by names, and I authorize a witch hunt (but please, practice WikiLove) on new instances. :-) Just for the weekend.
My concern is that this might spiral out of control into a full-fledged attack, and I'd just as soon prevent that and deal with it next week.
--Jimbo