[WikiEN-l] Registration system and blocks

Fri Dec 24 23:48:03 UTC 2004

Re: "Because then we'd stop being a wiki, and loose a huge number of 
contributors who just stop by to fix things, and then stay, but still not 
exclude persistant troublemakers."

Being an inconvenience to legitimate contributors is a valid point. However, 
it would have at least some effect on vandals.

To evade a block, all a vandal has to do is log off and log back on with a 
new account. However, going through all the steps required by email 
confirmation (consisting of signing up for a new email account, signing up 
to Wikipedia, checking the new email account for confirmation, and then 
logging on to Wikipedia) will take more time than the time required for 
admins to ban the sockpuppet.

The vast majority of vandals won't have the patience to bother with going 
through all these steps. Most of them are just bothering us because they are 
bored and they find it amusing, not because they are determined to sabotage 
our work. This'll probably encourage them to find something better to do.

This is worth losing a few contributors who just stop by to fix things. With 
its exponential growth, Wikipedia can weather the effect on slowing growth 
caused by adopting much needed quality control mechanisms. Growth is 
definitely not one of our relative weaknesses next to other encyclopedias 
online like Britannica and Encarta. Remember, Wikipedia's legitimacy will 
rest on quality and product, not quantity and process.

-172

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