On Wed, Mar 22, 2006 at 06:24:13PM -0800, freakofnurture wrote:
Jay R. Ashworth wrote:
Well, for what my opinion is worth (I'm not a
Wikimedia admin, but I've
been on the net for about 23 years) the writer doesn't sound like a) an
idiot, or b) a kook. He may be slightly uninformed technically (though
I'm not sure I even think that), but...
Let me make sure I'm following your perception: he says the HTTP proxy
which is blocked a) isn't his, b) isn't easily avoidable c) causes
collateral damage and d) is "safe", and you believe one or more of
those assertions to be factually inaccurate?
a) I am assuming that mr. wwwwolf is in fact a legitimate user of the ISP
that he describes.
b) I am assuming this is his only ISP, i.e., he doesn't have access to an
alternate ISP for purposes of editing wikipedia.
c) I have, at this time, no reason to believe he's a vandal, therefore I
assume denial of service to him would be considered collateral damage, yes.
d) I know for a fact that anybody in the world can configure his or her web
browser to use his IP address (213.216.199.14, just as I did to in the
[[Wikipedia:Sandbox]] to find out [1] what the IP was, and [2] whether or
not it had already been blocked) without any authentication or
accountability whatsoever, so I would not consider it "safe" by any means.
I count 3 out of 4 to be inaccurate.
Ok. Clearly I read you backwards.
So your problem is that his ISP doesn't limit use of their proxy to
their own customers, then? If that's the case, and, as he notes, it's
unlikely to be possible to make them change it (though you never know),
then it does appear to be a dilemma.
If the situation occurs often (ISP-run open proxies which must be
edit-blocked), then perhaps a redirect to a "your ISP runs an open
HTTP proxy at $IP_ADDRESS; if you want to contribute, you'll need to
find a different way to get here, or pressure them to restrict the
proxy to only their customers" page might be hacked in...
Cheers,
-- jra
--
Jay R. Ashworth jra(a)baylink.com
Designer Baylink RFC 2100
Ashworth & Associates The Things I Think '87 e24
St Petersburg FL USA
http://baylink.pitas.com +1 727 647 1274
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet and in e-mail?