On 12/20/05, Wikipedia Romania (Ronline) <rowikipedia(a)gmail.com> wrote:
About a week ago, something quite signficant happened
- anonymous
users were no longer allowed to start new articles. I said back then
that that wasn't such a major move, and it's isn't. However,
let's not let that become a slippery slope for all sorts of new
policies that seek to restrict the freedom, and by extension
the success, of Wikipedia.
It's my opinion that the success of the English Wikipedia depends on
getting some controls in place. Too many of our articles are
degrading in quality precisely because anybody can edit them.
At the Romanian Wikipedia, we have some of the most
liberal
policies on blocking and vandalism. And, so far, there haven't
been any major problems - no media reports, no huge glaring
errors, etc.
What works for rowiki may not work for enwiki.
Remember, our goal here is to write an encyclopedia. Open editing is
a tool that may or may not benefit that, and each language edition
must make a decision whether or not to allow open editing. Wikipedia
is absolutely not a free speech forum.
Kelly