Apparently, [[WP:BPP]] is the most current discussion of the matter on
English Wikipedia; it currently has a lot of support, as I hear the story
told. However, given the opposition from the devs, I just don't see it
happening without a Jimbo-level order to do it. He's the one we need to be
lobbying.
And yes, that was the reason: It would be of little use, because they would
just create sleeper accounts.
Essjay
On 3/19/06, Maru Dubshinki <marudubshinki(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On 3/19/06, - Essjay - <essjaywiki(a)gmail.com> wrote:
...
2) Bug 550 deals with the issue of allowing users
who have accounts to
edit
even if thier IP is blocked. The solution for it
is quite simple; it's
actually three lines of code that can be written by anyone with minor
PHP
skill. It requires the following:
a) that the patch be enabled;
b) that account creation from blocked IPs be disabled (to prevent the
vandals from simply creating an account to sidestep the IP block) which
to
my knowledge is already enabled
c) throttling account creation from IPs to x per day, currently 10 per
day.
This allows legit people to create accounts, but
prevents vandals from
creating 1000 sleeper accounts to use once the IP is blocked.
The devs are aware of the fix, and are not willing to enable it. The
exact
quote was that doing so is a "very very bad
idea." It is thier opinion
that
it will be of no use, that the vandals will just
create sleeper accounts
and
evade the blocks. I don't agree, but I'm
not a developer either; I defer
to
thier expertise in the matter.
...
Essjay
Is that really their reason? That is *remarkably stupid* of them. I
had thought there was a real reason; such lame excuses disgust me.
The whole idea of blocking, reverting and rollbacking and such like is
to change the balance between the ease of vandalising and the ease of
fixing vandalism in the favor of the latter.
Likewise, the whole idea of blocking is to raise the costs of an
attack on pages to the point where the vandal engages in fewer or none
(at which point the fixing-vandalism comes into play). Ex. it is hard
to vandalise a conventional website, and so it isn't done often, but
it is easy to vandalise a wiki, so it is done often.
Enabling that feature would raise the cost of vandalism from those
IPs- even if they could still get around it (note that *all* blocks
can be circumvented; it is just too troublesome for most vandals) by
making sleeper accounts, that requires quite a bit of effort and
planning, and waiting- all factors that considerably raise the cost of
vandalism from those IPs, especially since the sleeper accounts would
be indef blocked on surfacing, requiring the vandal to get even more
sleeper accounts, costing ever more effort.
It would be very useful.
~maru
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