ray(a)ganymede.org wrote:
I am curious why the note that I sent about this issue seemed to end
the thread, with no follow-up. Has this kind of option been rejected
in the past? This seems to be a fairly standard
security/authentication issue and I believe that the technology I
suggested is the kind of thing that would be fairly obvious. Am I
wrong about something here?
Just to add, with a authentication architecture, you could much more
easily offer offline editing with subsequent re-integration of the
content. Or am I swimming against the current here?
thanx - ray
Ray, I think the problem is that since the Wikipedia uses HTTP and is
completely open to anonymous edits, there is no way to prevent anyone
from writing a bot that just emulates what a web browser does when
acting as an agent for human editors.
Thus, there's really no way to keep the know-how secret: any competent
person can write a bot. It takes about an hour to write one, less if you
have HTTP scripting experience. Adding registered user support takes
just a little more knowledge.
Soft security is the best defence, except in extreme cases.
-- Neil