Carbonite wrote:
I think perhaps we're getting a little melodramatic here. I was under the impression that we're here to write an encyclopedia, not fight oppression. If the former happens to lead to the latter, that's a great bonus. My point was that it's up to the user to protect himself. If a slip of an IP address will likely lead to harsh punishment, the risk of editing is almost certainly too high. I'm NOT saying that we should be careless and expose IP addresses, but to treat this as a matter of life and death is unnecessary rhetoric. Carbonite
When I joined Wikipedia, I had the opportunity to protect myself. I used anonymous proxies. I edited, under these proxies, on certain topics which could lead to me certainly have professional problems. One thing I appreciated is that ips were visible, even for logged in users. So, anytime, I could check which information was registered about me.
When use of anonymous proxies was not possible any more, I stopped putting certain type of information entirely. I regretted that very much, but there was no possibility for myself to protect myself anymore.
I think some of the information I could have put on sites such as wikinews would have been worth. But I do not feel like fighting big firm lobbies.
oh... and read this http://soufron.typhon.net/article.php3?id_article=71
Ant