On 4/12/07, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
On 11/04/07, Oleg Alexandrov mathbot@hemlock.knams.wikimedia.org wrote:
That's the whole point I think. If you supply your email address when you make your account you're less likely to vandalize. And if you get blocked you can't start a new account with the same address while the block is on.
Q. How many email addresses do I have? A. As many as I like.
This is really the crux of the issue. To end IP editing would:
* not impact complex/serious vandalism, the type that's really dangerous - someone editing maliciously (as opposed to recklessly) is not going to be stopped by such a low bar as registering an account, even with the email requirement;
* probably reduce drive-by vandalism (the simple, obvious to catch stuff like page blanking), but, and here's the kicker:
* reduce drive-by improvements.
Aaron Swartz analysed a small sample of articles to see how much of the content in each edit persisted into the current version. He found that for each article, of the top 10 contributors by content (not contributors by edits), only around a fifth of them are registered.[1]
Bottom line: registered users make the vast majority of edits (and, as of 2005, the top 1400 make 73% of them) but it's IP editors (and small-time registered users) who contribute most of the content.
-- [1] http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whowriteswikipedia