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 First off, I'm sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you. The block in question was slated to expire in about two or three hours from the time of this reply, but I've lifted it in any case  if nothing else, the symbology of doing so is important. 

 If it's any consolation, I was not ""drunk with power,"" but was struggling to deal with a very persistent and abusive user who was stalking valuable editors and vandalizing a wide number of articles (more than could be practically protected from editing, another available tool). I've been a user at Wikipedia for some time, and an administrator for several months, but this is the first time I've dealt with these particular issues on such a scale or intensity. Seemingly credible death and rape threats were being issued not only against a particular user, but also against their family members. The only apparently viable options were for the victim user to stop editing Wikipedia, or for a strong action to deter the troll from further abuse. 

 Before you ask, I did check, and Sympatico is not apparently known for their responsiveness to abuse reports. Very few ISPs are; that's unfortunate for situations such as this, because it might be the best way to actually deal with these sorts of problems. 

 In any case, I tried a brief rangeblock, at first. The block was set only to block anonymous users, and included simple instructions to register an account an evade the block. When that didn't work, I opted to try a longer one, three days, which is what you ran into. 

 It's difficult to know ahead of time how much collateral damage such a block will cause. I truly do hate to think that even one person will have to suffer for the unfortunate actions of one abusive user, and in this case the damage was more than I was willing to tolerate. I've lifted the block, and will strive to avoid such actions in the future. 

 Unlike the apparently faceless admins at many sites, I've found that most enwiki admins are responsive to queries and really do care what their ""customers"" think. In my case, I'm only human; I have troubles, I get busy or overwhelmed. I do the best I can, but it is inevitable that any person will make mistakes. Chalk it down as a lesson learned. 

 The block should be removed at this time; if you have any problems editing, feel free to contact me or the unblock-en-l mailing list (you'll see instructions for doing so in the event you're blocked). 

 Thanks for your time and consideration.  "