On Friday 22 October 2004 06:26, Carson, David wrote:
(ever read an EULA when installing software?)
I do and I think it's a Good Thing (tm) to do that. Do you know that by just
submitting content to a site you can give to the site's admin the copyright
of your work? This may happen with some auction sites and some ISP userpages,
for example.
But I know most people don't read these things; So that's why the basic policy
needs to be short.
These ideas have been suggested before, but are so far
out of alignment
with the philosophy that Wikipedia was founded under that they will
never be implemented. A "no anon editing" Wikipedia can only be done as
a fork, I think.
Wikinfo does not allow anons, I think, neither my wikis. Allowing anons is
more appropriate for "anything goes" wikis where they don't expect quality
work, but for wikis where good organised content is desired, allowing anons
is not a good idea IMO.
Forcing people to have accounts in the wiki is useful to me because it
provides:
1. Better privacy: Users' IP addresses don't show up in the wiki. I really
don't understand why MediaWiki publishes IP addresses to everyone. That's a
"bug" IMO: It should display "Anonymous No. 48367" to users and the IP
only
to sysops. Anons should get a distinguishing number based on their IP, so
that users can recognise whether an anon is the same as another anon, but the
IP should be restricted to sysops. That's a very important privacy issue.
2. Better copyright management: I have zero chances of contacting an anon and
asking for permission to publish his or her edits under another license. With
user accounts it is more easier to switch licenses because I might be able to
contact them and ask whether they agree.
3. Better antitrollness: Abusive users seem to love anon editing, but the
requirement for an account could keep them out of the wiki, especially if the
account needs to be validated from an email address and we require them to
give us their real names.
4. Better reputation: Readers would be more happy to know that articles are
edited by a united community rather than by random anons who don't know each
other and don't conform to a policy or some standards.
--
NSK
Admin of
http://portal.wikinerds.org
Project Manager of
http://www.nerdypc.org
Project Manager of
http://www.adapedia.org
Project Manager of
http://maatworks.wikinerds.org