[WikiEN-l] RE: Blocking Proposal

Wed Oct 19 18:47:25 UTC 2005

> > What's wrong with that? I repeat, Wikipedia should let *anyone* edit. 
>Just
> > because someone uses AOL doesn't mean s/he should have to register and
> > create an account to edit. We're "forcing" users, to quote from you, to
> > register when the whole point of Wikipedia is that you don't need to
> > register to edit.
>
>  I really can't figure out what you're arguing here, though. Because right
>now, when an AOL IP is blocked, you can't edit using it regardless of
>whether or not you register. As I understand it, the proposal is to allow
>logged in users to edit when they otherwise wouldn't.
>  Sure, this might lead to admins being more liberal with IP blocks, but it
>doesn't require it - whether or not admins are more liberal with IP blocks
>is a separate issue, and we could pass policies to ensure that this doesn't
>happen.
>
>

True, but right now AOL IP blocks are kept to a minimum, and I haven't seen 
an AOL range block in a long time. From the proposal: "This new form of 
blocking will only affect specific IP addresses, most obviously will be AOL, 
which would almost certainly be blocked due to the level of vandalism. " If 
this proposal was implemented, it would almost be certain that AOL IPs would 
be continuously blocked or blocked indefinitely. In addition, so many 
schools and public-use computers would also almost certainly be blocked 
using this method. But that's not the main point: the main point is that 
we're restricting editing from IP addresses, which in itself is against the 
spirit of wikis and especially of Wikipedia. We're proposing punishing a 
large majority of internet users for a small percentage of troublesome 
vandals. In addition, my opinion is that this won't deter vandalism but will 
instead encourage vandalism. I see very few benefits in this proposal. We 
don't have a problem with vandalism right now; we have a problem with 
getting enough contributors to edit and write, as evidenced with the 
articles [[Bill Gates]] and [[Jane Fonda]]. Are we to scare off 
contributors, encourage vandalism, and go against the spirit of the wiki? I 
sure hope not, and I personally think that this policy would be detrimental 
to Wikipedia.

Thanks.

Flcelloguy
>From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.

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