[Wikipedia-l] Require confirmed email address to upload images?

Thu Jun 29 17:43:50 UTC 2006

On 6/29/06, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell at gmail.com> wrote:
> I have a hard time listening to people who make loud an emotional
> complaints about exclusion when we talk about registration, because
> it's patently untrue. Registration excludes no one.   If you want to
> argue on the basis of more complicated editing/uploading dissuading
> new people from discovering the joy of contributing then I can follow
> that argument..  But to claim that we're discussion a policy of
> exclusion? Thats just trolling.

It's important noting the philosophy behind a change like the one
proposed. Many forums require registration and e-mail confirmation to
discourage spam and abuse. This is not the philosophy of the wiki,
where you typically develop complex measures of surveillance,
prevention and intervention rather than erecting barriers to entry.

But the change is not to proposed to make it harder to upload. The
change is proposed to make it easier to contact uploaders, which is a
legitimate concern. If this becomes an opt-in measure for each wiki
community (each of which may have its own reasons for wanting or not
wanting it), I really see no compelling reason against it.

One could make the argument (and I believe Kat did) that it is harsher
to uploaders to just delete their pictures without asking. The idea
here is not to _exclude_ people. The idea is to be nice to them. But I
think it's OK for Commons to be "harsh", because it follows a very
strict standard of freedom and it's important for people to learn
that. I'm not sure if the rest of the Commons community will agree,
but essentially, I think there needs to be a consensus-oriented
discussion on each wiki before a feature like this is activated.

Erik