[Foundation-l] Re: check user policy/Tor

Thu Nov 3 15:14:17 UTC 2005

On 11/2/05, SJ <2.718281828 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> To be mergist about these ideas... one could offer users both options.
> 1) edit under a privacy policy which disallows anonymity, or
> 2) edit anonymously, first passing through a sandbox stage to
> demonstrate that you are not a bot and are acting in good faith.
>
> + SJ +

I think you're missing the main reason I use Tor. In fact, for the most part
it has nothing to do with editing. I want to be anonymous when I *read*
Wikipedia. I also don't want my IP address tied to my identity, but that's
probably unavoidable.
 To constantly log in and out and switch proxies all the time would be too
much work. Also, I've noticed that MediaWiki doesn't clear all the cookies
when you log out anyway.
 I'd suggest a much different approach:
 1) The ability to send login information only when editing, and not when
merely reading. This could be easily accomplished by simply allowing
Wikipedia to be read through a different domain name, where the cookies
wouldn't be sent.
 and
 2) The ability for at least some subset of logged in users to edit logged
in through any IP address. Possibly some other means could be used to ensure
that these users are not gaming the system. For instance, I'd be willing to
donate $5 to the organization to create such an account.