User talk:Invalid username 3631~enwiktionary

Hi Dudley,

We have an extremely persistent vandal on this Wiktionary. Every time I see entries referring to some kind of faeces (any animal will do, but pelicans seem to be his favorite), boring stuff about Kenneth or obnoxious pictures from goatse.cx, I go to zero tolerance and block the IP or user who created that kind of content. Apparently I should be even more careful before blocking than I am at the moment. I apologize for the inconvenience. Can you tell me which IP-numbers/user name(s) where yours? (Your ISP might give those numbers back to you and then you would be blocked again). I made sure to block for a sufficient amount of time, so this person will have had some time to grow up and get interested in other things than vandalizing a project like this one. I will unblock them again ASAP.

Of course you are going to have to prove that you are a serious contributor. So start contributing. This user ID will have the benefit of the doubt. (And believe me, the doubt is elevated. Since you can't even be bothered to write my nickname correctly on my talk page.)

Polyglot 13:54, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC)

OK, so you ask me what is the point of blocking lots of IP-adresses and taking the risk of blocking universities. Now I have a question for you. Not that I expect you to be able to give me any reasonable answer to it, but I'm interested anyway:

What is the point in trying to slow down (because that's all you can hope for) a project that's trying to create dictionary content free of restrictive copyright? Does it really make you feel better? Is it your way to ask for attention? There are constructive ways to get attention as well. You could create content that's worthwhile in fields that would be interesting for our project and that you know about. Finally: did we do something wrong to you? Or are you simply mad at the world and do you need an easy target to get rid of your anger? I hope you realize nothing you add here maliciously, stands a chance of staying on for longer than a few short hours and indeed all you manage to do is to give us some more work. On the one hand this gives us a little bit less time to do something constructive, on the other hand it creates a lot of ill will against you. There are a lot of people who will revert your actions around here, you are outnumbered and you will one day get tired of your petty games. The contributors over here are in it for the long run though. In the end you will have simply been an accident on the road, a flat tire that gets fixed. This project is going to create a free dictionary and there is nothing you can do about that, except slowing it down in a minor way. In the time you are here three new contributors have arrived and a lot of content has been added and improved. There is nothing you can do about that. So humour me and tell me what's the point of your actions?

Polyglot 08:22, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Hi Dudley,

I have waited a long time before I started blocking IP-addresses. I do realize that there are too many of them. You did manage to find a way to use other sites as a proxy. I do admit we will never be able to stop you entirely, but it is enough to annoy you back a little bit and I have to admit I found a way to do so. You see, it's an escalation. Blocking IPs and user names is something that is not done lightly. But I feel, it has been going on for long enough to reach for other means than simply reverting and deleting what you do.

You shouldn't worry too much about those blocks either. It is very well possible to unblock them before they expire and we will probably do that. Not only because they are the public addresses of universities, but also because some well meaning individual willing to contribute that happens to share an ISP with you could also be blocked when he gets assigned an address that you had before him.

That is a chore for within a week or two, when/if you do stop your actions. Do realize that we do see your actions as vandalism and it's not really important how you view them yourself.

Anyway, thank you for enlightening me about the why of your actions. I do realize that we cannot effectively block you, short of taking legal action. That's the disadvantage of an open project like this one. Everybody is free and invited to come and contribute. That this also attracts spammers and vandals (and trolls) is unfortunate. Let's say that that's the price we pay. We are willing to pay it though to keep our project open though and no vandal is going to change that.

Just like you are determined to prove that you can hurt our project, we are determined to prove that this project can work and that over the course of a few decennia it will make the world a better place by providing an open content dictionary. Polyglot 11:38, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)