[WikiEN-l] Blocking proposal

Tue Oct 18 22:03:25 UTC 2005

>
> > The proposal would
> > indubitably mean the blocking
> > (using this logged-in only registration) of most AOL
> > IPs, Netscape IPs,
> > school districts, public-use computers, and major
> > corporations.
>
>And how is this wrong?

What's wrong with not letting the 25 million + AOL users not edit 
anonymously? I thought the whole point of Wikipedia was that anyone could 
edit - this has already been discussed extensively on the Village Pump, and 
this is taking us one step closer to the precipice of not letting anonymous 
users edit. We don't want to stop anonymous editing for a significant 
portion of users.

>
>By only
> > allowing logged-in users on these IPs (since it is
> > inevitable that all of
> > them would either be blocked indefinitely or blocked
> > consistently),
>
>This is not the case -- editors far outnumber vandals.
>This would simply force editors who have 1) previously
>been unlogged in and 2) happen to be on a IP used by
>vandals, to register and log in. Whats wrong with
>that?

What's wrong with that? I repeat, Wikipedia should let *anyone* edit. Just 
because someone uses AOL doesn't mean s/he should have to register and 
create an account to edit. We're "forcing" users, to quote from you, to 
register when the whole point of Wikipedia is that you don't need to 
register to edit.

>
>
> > opinion, is against the spirit of the Wiki - we're
> > here to allow *anyone* to
> > edit, not just those who want to create accounts.
>
>Bah. This affects only vandal IPs, which are fewer
>than larger. Logging in doesnt (necessarily)
>compromise anonymity -- not unless there is some
>unprincipled turning over of user logs to third
>parties. In fact, logging in offers more anonymity,
>wheras an IP address is in fact an identifier. Using
>dynamic IPs for anonymity is just a defacto method to
>increase anonymity -- it does not in fact *provide
>such.

I've never said anything about anonymity, and that's the issue here. The 
issue is whether to block IP editing for a significant portion of the global 
internet users. Also, what do you mean that this only affects vandal IPs? A 
large number of our contributors here - regardless of registered or not - 
use AOL, and this would severely curtail (in fact, eliminate) editting 
without logging in/registered - which is, as I repeat, against the spirit of 
Wikipedia IMO. If it was our intent to stop all vandalism, I'm sure that all 
anonymous editing would have been stopped by now; however, this has been 
soundly rejected multiple times.

>
>This blocking
> > policy proposal would take
> > us one step closer to not allowing any anonymous
> > editing - AOL, school
> > districts, and public-use computers comprise a large
> > amount of our editing,
> > and many are valuable editors and contributors that
> > we may lose if this
> > policy is implemented.
>
>Bah. Your rant simply repeats a lot of the same claims
>and fears without basing them in substance. If youre
>just worried that range blocks would become used too
>routinely, then thats a concern to address later
>--when such actually becomes a problem.

I'm not worried about the range blocks/ blocks of AOL IP. I think other 
people are, which is one of the pros of this blocking proposal - logged in 
users could still edit on AOL even though the IP is blocked. All I'm saying 
is that there are way too many cons in this proposal, IMO, compared to only 
a small benefit (allowing current contributors who use AOL to edit while AOL 
IPs are blocked). I"m offering an alternate solution - use blocks on shared 
IPs such as AOL IPs with more caution, and we should be fine.

In my opinion, I think my "rant" already has a lot of substance - I didn't 
fill up a whole darn email for nothing. :-) And that's exactly my point - 
that this blocking proposal would be detrimental to Wikipedia. I urge you 
all to consider the long-term effects of this. Thanks.

Flcelloguy
>From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.

>
>SV
>
>
>
>
>
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>End of WikiEN-l Digest, Vol 27, Issue 135
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