[WikiEN-l] Repeated blocks -- collateral damage

Wed Oct 26 10:18:58 UTC 2005

In a message dated 10/26/2005 6:11:55 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
dgerard at gmail.com writes:

Koltwills wrote:

>You have attempted to edit a page,  either by clicking the "edit this  page"
>tab or by following  a red link.
>Your user name or IP address has been  _blocked_
>(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Blocking_policy)    by _David   
Gerard_
>(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:David_Gerard)  .
>The reason given is:
>Autoblocked because your IP address  has  been recently used  by
>"_Ugabogaimasuuuukpoopit@!_
>(http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Ugabogaimasuuuukpoopit@!&acti
on=edit)
".   >The reason given for Ugabogaimasuuuukpoopit@!'s
>block is:  "massive  sockpuppetry (A1sdf sockpuppet)".

Yeah. I  blocked a sokpuppeteering vandal. Unfortunately, they were
using a  pile of AOL IPs, so I spent yesterday answering email (and
trying to  get some people to just cut'n'paste the error message so I
know which  username to look for!) and undoing blocks on the  IPs.

>This hasn't happened for a couple of weeks, but it  happens frequently  
enough
>-- often three and four times a  week:  I get blocked as the  result of
>someone else's  conduct.  When I try to edit, I get the  "User is
blocked"  message --
>but the I.P. address is never my  own.
>How  does this happen?

AOL runs what is effectively a massive  internal anonymising proxy. Any
individual *page view* might come  from a different IP.

A page explaining it technically  is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Dealing_with_AOL_vandals

Someone's  called it "super-dynamic proxying", which is a pretty good
way to put  it.

>How does this happen?  Is there something I or  someone else can  do to
>prevent it from occurring  again?

Excluding AOL ranges from the autoblocker might be an  idea, or setting
the duration to be very short for those  IPs.

In the meantime, I apologise profusely for the trouble, even  though it
will probably happen again and again and again and  ...

- d.

Hi, David. *waving*

Thanks.

I've asked the question of "how" repeatedly in the past, but this is  the 
first time I've gotten a real explanation.

Now, what about the selective blocking.  How does THAT  happen -- being able 
to edit one page and not another, when the  article I can't edit is open for 
editing?

I've been told that such a thing is "impossible," but it's happened  to me 
many times.

Does anyone have an explanation?

dcv