* Bug 11629 -
If $wgEmailConfirmToEdit is true, require people to supply an
email address when registering.
Does this behavior make sense if users with unconfirmed e-mail
addresses aren't allowed to edit but are, for instance, allowed to
view pages that other users aren't?
Sounds like we have:
* User wants to view wiki, if possible anonymously.
* Administrator has configured wiki so anons can't view pages.
* Administrator has configured wiki so only registered users can view pages.
* User never wants to edit.
* Administrator wants people to be able to edit.
* User does not want to supply email address.
* Administrator has enabled $wgEmailConfirmToEdit.
Basically the user wants to be an anonymous viewer, yet the admin keeps trying
to force them to be a non-anonymous editor. I'm not sure that the wiki is the
fundamental
issue here - maybe this user and this administrator just have "irreconcilable
differences"?
For that matter, users may want
to make an account just to set viewing preferences, say. I'm not sure
that an e-mail address should be required for registration just
because it's required for editing.
The theory of what you are saying is absolutely correct - having an account
(which can have viewing preferences, have certain privileges, and may or may
not be able to edit until the email address is confirmed), and having an account
with a confirmed email address, are two logically separate things.
However, in practice, the previous behaviour wasn't ideal when $wgEmailConfirmToEdit
was true:
* User goes to sign up.
* Create Account page says that suppling an email address is optional.
* User therefore decides to not supply an email address.
* User goes to edit a page with new account.
* Instead gets a view-source page that says "You must supply an email address to
edit,
by mucking around in special:preferences".
* User throws coffee mug at computer whilst yelling "So why did you lie to me by
telling me that an email address was optional?"
In personal opinion, it's better just to say "You need to supply an email
address", and
be done with it - especially given that this is a non-default option, so you have to
go out of your way to turn it on.
Effectively, what I'm saying is that the sum total frustration experienced by people
who
are editors due to the above, exceeds the sum total frustration of people who are not
editors yet who want to create an account whilst also not wanting to supply an email
address. And if it really bothers those people, they can just put "@" or
"bite@me"
in the email address field, and then it behaves the same as it did before.
Incidentally, is there some reason we aren't
using
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['edit'] =
$wgGroupPermissions['user']['edit']
= false; $wgGroupPermissions['emailconfirmed']['edit'] = true;
instead of a dedicated option? Historical reasons, or something else?
Don't know. I was assuming historical reasons, but $wgGroupPermissions came first:
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:%24wgGroupPermissions (version >= 1.5)
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:%24wgEmailConfirmToEdit (version >= 1.6)
Maybe 'emailconfirmed' wasn't added to $wgGroupPermissions until after 1.6?
-- All the best,
Nick.