--- daniwo59@aol.com wrote:
I am an AOL user. I am also a sysop and I have been contributing to Wikipedia for well over a year. I have found myself blocked on several occasions because of blocks against Michael. There is absolutely no justification for blocking thousands of potential users like me just because we happen to use AOL. There must be some other solution.
Danny
Danny, the company you chose to use to provide internet access and other services is unwilling to alter its business practices to accomodate the needs of other web sites to provide defense against malicious persons.
You will note that AOL is the only ISP which does not assign session-length IPs for dialup users. This is a technical feature they have decided to implement in order to disallow banning of internet users from non-AOL sites, since by the strength of their numbers they can influence content providers to not block this many potential customers.
Some people will counter that because of AOL's infrastructure, they are incapable of assigning session-length IPs. I say that they have the money to do so, they are just unwilling. (everybody else does it, so it can't be that hard).
I feel your pain, but AOL's policy is harming the W, both by allowing Michael and Co to rampage and by forcing many people to spend their time and energy trying to figure out a way around this problem.
You have an option: You can leave AOL and use a different provider.
===== Christopher Mahan chris_mahan@yahoo.com 818.943.1850 cell http://www.christophermahan.com/
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