User:No Chinese allowed
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An interesting username, you might think. Any story behind it?
My first edit on Wikipedia after creating my account was to create a brief user page. Except that when I clicked on "Save page", I found that my account had already been blocked from being used. Puzzled, I had a look through the relevant policy and discovered that Wikipedia has a problem with Chinese. I logged out and then observed that my crime of creating the username "小" was evidently so heinous that I and everyone using this computer needed to be punished by being prevented from editing any page, either anonymously or under any username at all.
Surprised that such a jackbooted approach could be normal on Wikipedia, I took a look at the policy on blocking, and saw that "Co-operative contributors should normally just be made aware of our policy via a post on their talk page. Voluntary changes (via Wikipedia:Changing username) are preferred: users from other countries and/or age groups may make mistakes about choosing names -- immediate blocking or listing on RfC could scare off new users acting in good faith."
Indeed, it appeared that User:Kungfuadam and User:Pschemp had themselves violated policy. Now, I fully understand the contempt that computer geeks have for "newbies". However, I do feel that people who behave aggressively towards new contributors should have their conduct questioned. Of course, it's their site, not mine, so they will suffer no consequences, but it is possible that this page at least will remain uncensored and give someone pause for thought, which is why I have created this new account from another computer.
After creating this new account, I decided to give Wikipedia a second chance, and therefore made a handful of edits. However, I was then verbally attacked for daring to complain about what had happened to me. It was explained that, in order to be permitted to edit here, I had to conform not just to certain rules of behaviour but also certain rules regarding what and how to think, which is unacceptable for a free-thinking person.
It was thus made clear that my knowledge and expertise are not wanted here.
Hi, I thought I'd chime in with a description of my similar (negative) experiences on Wikipedia. Earlier last week I had edited this page to include the following:
- "Yes, the same thing happened to someone in my department (at university) some months ago--not with Chinese, but with a username deemed 'unpronounceable' by a random administrator. No warning was given before the block. The entire building found itself banned from Wikipedia with no apparent means of unblocking ourselves. Breathtaking, self-defeating idiocy on the part of "Pschemp" (in your case) and other Wikipedia administrators (in ours), in the opinion of this humble contributor. Anonymous Andy 02:06, 22 July 2006 (UTC)"
Immediately after I wrote this, Pschemp appeared out of nowhere to delete this comment, and to ban my account from adding it back or from editing anywhere else on Wikipedia. I expect he'll probably do the same thing again to this account. Is there no oversight on Wikipedia for this sort of abuse by administrators? Andy emigré 08:04, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
