Wikisource:News/2006-04-19/Local CheckUser status in doubt

Following a previous news story ( see "Voting begins on two for CheckUser access", 30 March 2006 ), doubt has arisen over Wikisource's ability to sucessfully elect local CheckUsers. It is hoped that these will allow more rapid, efficient, and informed checks than is available from the generic Request for CheckUser information page on the Meta-Wiki.

Foundation policy states that each project must have a strict minimum of two CheckUsers or none at all, and that each must receive a minimum of 25 support votes. These measures are intended to protect editors' privacy by limiting CheckUser access to a relatively small number of users. Despite prior assurances from steward Datrio, it seems likely that the 25-support rule will be strictly enforced over Wikisource's request. The two candidates, Pathoschild and Zhaladshar, currently have 18 and 14 votes respectively.

Concerns with the current policy prompted a discussion on the Wikimedia Foundation mailing list ( see "[Foundation-l Stewards are ignoring requests for CheckUser information? ]", 14 April 2006 ), where the concept of "guest CheckUsers" was proposed. This proposal would give CheckUsers access on all projects of a language, and allow them to perform local CheckUser duties on a smaller project with the community's permission. The proposal is currently being discussed under "Access (new version)" on the CheckUser Policy talk page.