[wp-docs] Banning a user--reasonable?

[michael at followingedge.com]

--On Sunday, January 29, 2006 10:53 AM -0500 "Michael E. Hancock" 
<mhancock at us.net> wrote:
> This morning, a user left comments that I felt weren't pertinent to Codex.
>
> http://codex.wordpress.org/index.php?title=Talk:Contributing_to_WordPress
> &curid=3949&diff=26625&oldid=26624&rcid=25088
>
> I banned that user (User:Branko) for 240 hours for leaving unprofessional
> comments, but he has questioned that with this:
> -----
> "I see you blocked me from posting at the WordPress codex, stating as
> reason: "unprofessional comments".
> ...
> Please enlighten me what is defined as "professional" at the Wordpress
> codex, so that I can work hard to get the ban lifted?"
> -----
>
> Was I unreasonable in banning this user?  Or did I commit unwarranted
> censureship?

I would like to support him as a spurned contributor, since I feel like the 
WordPress community is often unwelcoming. However, it seems to me that you 
were right in this case. But, maybe "unprofessional" is the wrong label to 
use for this. I think that the measure of a contribution to the Codex 
should not be professionalism, but whether it helps to build useful 
discussion or documentation for WordPress. Looking at his comment, I don't 
see that "I don't personally want to work on WordPress until Matt is gone" 
is a useful bit of documentation. I don't know anything about it, but I 
suppose it may be relevant discussion to ask "Is Matt's value to WordPress 
more critical than the loss of a few contributors irritated about an error 
he might have made"? In fact, I think a few people would be happy to 
respond to that very clearly! And, that seems more relevant to discussion, 
not documentation, so it could be directed to the forums instead.

Remember that people who contribute negative things like this DO care about 
WordPress. If they didn't care, they would make the effort, I think. In my 
opinion, being welcoming to the WordPress community requires giving people 
like this a gentle and respectful nudge in the right direction:

"Your recent comment on the WordPress Codex was removed, because it did not 
seem to contribute to documenting WordPress, the goal of the Codex. Your 
comment may have been appropriate for discussion on the WordPress Forum, 
but you should be sure to provide sufficient background information and a 
clear goal or problem before addressing this to the Forum, since the 
Forum's goal is to build constructive discussion and support for the 
WordPress community. As a matter of policy to prevent abusive behavior on 
the Codex, users with removed comments are often banned from further 
comments for 10 days. Your posting access will resume in 10 days and we'll 
hope to see your contributions to WordPress documentation after that time. 
Thanks sincerely."

It's wordy, isn't it? But, nearly as easy to cut and paste as to type 
"unprofessional comments" and nudges them constructively and respectfully 
in the right direction. I think less terse and more welcoming dialog with 
potential contributors is an important goal.

To me, it looks like you were totally right on to remove the comment and 
your contribution in dealing with negative people like this should be truly 
appreciated. I just wanted to offer a suggestion for defusing this sort of 
situation and (perhaps) bringing some of this type of contribution around 
to be positive contributions to WordPress.

Thanks,

-Michael (Moore)
 michael at followingedge.com