142.177.114.228: what it is, why powers allocated to deal with it should not deal with more than just simple obvious stuff

2004-01-07T21:56:35Z

what it is, why powers allocated to deal with it should not deal with more than just simple obvious stuff

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'''Simple vandalism''' is easily recognizable by any user and is rarely or never disputed. It is a clearly non-meritorious edit or repeated posting of inappropriate jokes or provably false statements, especially those that seem reasonable (one such posting of a false statement is probably just an error in one's sources, and there might be an [[accuracy dispute]] or [[identity dispute]] about the issue that goes beyond '''simple''' identification and resolution). The most frequent cases are people on a [[large public wiki]] who see they can [[edit this page]] and decide to erase, not improve, what is there.

Some forms of [[sysop vandalism]] are simple as well. For instance, reverting what is clearly an error or spelling or link destination correction, which turns an article from being correct into being wrong, as the edit they reverted made it correct. This commonly occurs where [[ad hominem revert]] is tolerated, and the effects of [[ad hominem delete]] are not much better - they may for instance lead to an [[open link]] not being closed, or even NEVER being closed, if people are intimidated by an [[inquisitor]] into not creating ANY article under the same title as the original [[troll text]] had specified... in this case vandalism can actually lead to a total breakdown in editing processes.

Much [[sysop vandalism]] however is not quite so simple, and, there are many edits on any [[large public wiki]] that has any [[controversial issues]] at all, that deal with [[political disputes]] and real [[power structure]]s - it is therefore hard to tell any kind of [[vandalism]] from [[troll]] or simple [[conflicts between users]], especially if one user and not the other is part of the [[sysop power structure]]. It is more or less this ability to [[block IP]] that ''defines'' a [[troll]]. Not offering sysops editorial powers nor tolerating [[ad hominem delete]], [[witch-hunt]]s, etc., is part of what is required to make a [[troll-friendly]] wiki where sysop vandalism is uncommon. Or better, unknown.

When everyone involved in a [[large public wiki]] notices [[sysop vandalism]], which is INEVITABLE if it is actually '''simple vandalism''' that clearly and obviously degrades the quality of the [[GFDL text corpus]], that is a sign that the [[sysop power structure]] is so irresponsible that it, and its [[GodKing]], must either change, or lose the best contributors with the highest integrity. This is the highest priority for [[governance]] and is one reason to have an [[independent board]] - to do [[mass bans of sysops]] and start over again...

The next highest priority is to [[revert]] '''simple vandalism''' quickly and efficiently, and make clear to [[sysop]]s that this is the only matter they are empowered to deal with without a [[due process]] that respects all [[faction]]s and deals politically with a [[political dispute]], rather than relying on who has the technological power or not. Failing to do so degrades the discourse and is similar to letting those who carry guns, speak, and those who don't carry guns, not. This is certainly the purest form of a [[w:police state]], and it is too high a price to pay simply to revert more than simple vandalism.

It is extremely important not to abuse [[vandalism in progress]] as this leads to a casual use of the term "vandalism" and encourages [[inquisitor]] and [[echo chamber]] problems. [[Conflicts between users]] is a better name if it is anything other than '''simple vandalism''' that is reverted by more than one sysop. A system that requires sysops to co-operate to do certain things like [[ad hominem revert]] or [[ad hominem delete]] would be one way to make sure that they saw the issue the same way and agreed on the "reasons why" to do it.

Simple vandalism - Revision history

142.177.114.228: what it is, why powers allocated to deal with it should not deal with more than just simple obvious stuff