On Fri, Jan 17, 2014 at 1:21 PM, Erik Moeller <erik(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
On Mon, Jan 13, 2014 at 9:10 AM, Chris Steipp
<csteipp(a)wikimedia.org>
wrote:
> To satisfy Applebaum's request, there
needs to be a mechanism whereby
> someone can edit even if *all of their communications with Wikipedia,
> including the initial contact* are coming over Tor or equivalent.
> Blinded, costly-to-create handles (minted by Wikipedia itself) are one
> possible way to achieve that; if there are concrete reasons why that
> will not work for Wikipedia, the people designing these schemes would
> like to know about them.
This should be possible, according to
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/NOP,
which Nemo also posted. The user sends an email
to the stewards (using
tor
to access email service of their choice). Account
is created, and user
can
edit Wikimedia wikis. Or is there still a step
that is missing?
I tested the existing process by creating a new
riseup.net email
account via Tor, then requesting account creation and a global
exemption via stewards(a)wikimedia.org. My account creation request was
granted, but for exemption purposes, I was requested to go through the
process for any specific wiki I want to edit. In fact, the account was
created on Meta, but not exempted there.
The reason I gave is as follows:
"My reason for editing through Tor is that I would like to write about
sensitive issues (e.g. government surveillance practices) and prefer not
to be identified when doing so. I have some prior editing experience, but
would rather not disclose further information about it to avoid any
correlation of identities."
This seems like a valid reason for a global exemption to me, so I'm
not sure the current global policy is sufficient.
I use an anonymous encrypted VPN when accessing the Internet from home, and
found myself unable to edit on en.wp. I requested IPBE
<https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Nathan&diff=572887054&oldid=568388651>
and
was initially denied because I was able to turn off the VPN to edit.
Exemption was only granted because an administrator familiar with me was
watching my talkpage and stepped in.