Re: [Foundation-l] Open proxy robotical blocking

On Fri, Apr 28, 2006 at 04:38:57PM +0200, Anthere wrote: ... I think several aspects should be separated -technical implementation & mediawiki issues (problems with cluttering of logs etc.) -questions od accuracy of open proxy detection, if such blocks can be automated -should open proxies be blocked just because beeing open proxies? I hope Egg (creator of Proxybot) will post something about the bot in wikitech-l, in Requests_for_permissions also another solution was proposed, to import the blacklist directly into db. I hope this will be discussed in wikitech-l What seems to me as relevant topic for Foundation-l are the policy questions 1. should open proxies be blocked? some possible answers a. yes b. only after they are source of vandalism c. no, they should be treated as normal ips d. it should be left to local communities of language versions / projects to decide As we have a "WikiProject on open proxies" http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WM:OP and http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WM:NOP no open proxies policy the answer seems to be "yes", but see complains at [[en:Wikipedia talk:No open proxies#Foundation Issue Violation]] 2. can such blocks be automated? a. yes b. yes, if the list was verified by hand by experienced users c. yes, if the list was verified by trusted script run by trusted user d. yes, if the list comes from reputable source (is meta: page a reputable source?) e. no, it should be checked by hand one by one f. no g. it should be left to local communities of language versions / projects to decide In my opinion trusted proxycheck script run by trusted user is resonable. Scripts tend to err on side of caution (if I play with nmap etc. I'm able to identify more proxies simple script is). My thought on the topic - if http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WM:NOP is official Foundation policy, it would make sense to have Wikimedia-wide ip blacklist, blocking proxies. One-by-one blocks by hand by admins of individual projects are IMO waste of time. That isn't a problem on en: with its overwhelming manpower, but for smaller project dealing with open proxy abuse may be non-negligeable burden. One technically savvy vandal can occupy several checkusers and admins for indefinite time period: all he has to do is to download some public open proxy list, run his own scan, and as soon as one proxy is blocked, switch to another. If privacy policy is relatively strict and blocking policy relatively liberal (warn several times, block only after several repeated vandalisms, if vandalizing edits are mixed with good edits, talk more, use RfC etc.) time impact on wiki users vs. vandal plays in favour of vandal. Jan Kulveit - User:Wikimol