But do we have a major problem with anon vandals, as opposed to
trolls? That's the real question, isn't it? If we were being overrun
by anon vandals, I'd say absolutely, we shut off anon logins. But
those "on the frontlines" tell me that this anon vandals isn't the
problem -- it's that complete trolls can't be blocked due to our
(excessive?) due process.
--Jimbo
Abe Sokolov wrote:
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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