Jimmy Wales wrote: The smaller pool of authors is the very reason I'd prefer logged-in edits only, as less "real" authors means shifting the author:vandal ratio in favor of the vandals. On the other hand, keeping anonymous edits might be good as well, as vandals then wouldn't log in, and *potential* (!) vandalism could be rather easily on Recent Changes by the very fact that it's an anonymous edit (most "real" authors are probably logged in). OK, I'm convinced! Let's keep anon edits in until all hell breaks loose ;-) Oh, one motivational issue: So far, in Germany the state paid for all the books in school. Just today, it was announced that due to Germany's financial sorta crisis, the parents will have to pay for the books in the future. Too bad there's no free source for such books... Magnus

Daniel Ehrenberg wrote: Well, we switched from UseMod primarily because it could no longer handle the load, so "speed" is a relative thing. But remember that anonymity is actually *greater* for logged in users. You can make up any sort of name, and no one can even guess where you are. When you're working un-logged-in, anyone can figure out what ISP you are using, and often what city you're located in. So, really, not that anyone ever believes it, ha ha, the truth is that logins provide enhanced anonymity. --Jimbo

Jimmy Wales wrote in part: In most (if not all) States, they're generally provided. Whether they're up to date and in good shape, and whether there are enough for each individual student (so they don't have to trade off who gets to take the book home), well these matters will depend on the available funding. I get the impression from Magnus' post that in Germany, the funding of textbooks is done on a national level. (Not /some/ parents, but /all/ parents, due to a /national/ fiscal crisis.) Of course, the US does these things at a State level. But the funding of textbooks is in many (most? all?) States is in fact a /local/ budgetary decision; so you may see neighbouring districts in the same State (county, city) with very different funding levels for all sorts of things. Partly, this is because of our traditional reliance on locally collected taxes, generally property taxes. School districts here are chartered by their States to collect taxes within their boundaries to fund themselves. The idea is to give the districts a measure of autonomy, by not making them dependent on the State government for funds. But another result is that the funds available to a district depend heavily on the wealth of the property owners there; poor districts have poor books, and rich districts have good books. Also, since districts in most (all?) States now supplement the property tax with a great deal of State funding, and even take a small but significant amount of national funding, the goal of financial independence is pretty much shot anyway. That's why the national government is able to require (say) national standards testing or gender equality in sports without a direct mandate from the Constitution to regulate local schools; they simply put that clause into the funding bill, and the local districts can either comply or do without. (Well, that's how they get the Supreme Court to swallow it, at least. I don't intend to try to /justify/ such legal chicanery.) -- Toby

--- Toby Bartels <toby+wikipedia(a)math.ucr.edu> wrote: But it's so much easier when you don't have to log into things. Sometimes, I edit wikipedia anon when I don't have enough time to login, and that is very convenient. I don't see why these extra restrictions must be added. -LDan __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! http://sbc.yahoo.com