In a message dated 10/26/2005 6:11:55 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, dgerard@gmail.com writes:
Koltwills wrote:
You have attempted to edit a page, either by clicking the "edit this page" tab or by following a red link. Your user name or IP address has been _blocked_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Blocking_policy) by _David
Gerard_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:David_Gerard) . The reason given is: Autoblocked because your IP address has been recently used by "_Ugabogaimasuuuukpoopit@!_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Ugabogaimasuuuukpoopit@!&...
on=edit) ". >The reason given for Ugabogaimasuuuukpoopit@!'s
block is: "massive sockpuppetry (A1sdf sockpuppet)".
Yeah. I blocked a sokpuppeteering vandal. Unfortunately, they were using a pile of AOL IPs, so I spent yesterday answering email (and trying to get some people to just cut'n'paste the error message so I know which username to look for!) and undoing blocks on the IPs.
This hasn't happened for a couple of weeks, but it happens frequently
enough
-- often three and four times a week: I get blocked as the result of someone else's conduct. When I try to edit, I get the "User is
blocked" message --
but the I.P. address is never my own. How does this happen?
AOL runs what is effectively a massive internal anonymising proxy. Any individual *page view* might come from a different IP.
A page explaining it technically is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Dealing_with_AOL_vandals
Someone's called it "super-dynamic proxying", which is a pretty good way to put it.
How does this happen? Is there something I or someone else can do to prevent it from occurring again?
Excluding AOL ranges from the autoblocker might be an idea, or setting the duration to be very short for those IPs.
In the meantime, I apologise profusely for the trouble, even though it will probably happen again and again and again and ...
- d.
Hi, David. *waving*
Thanks.
I've asked the question of "how" repeatedly in the past, but this is the first time I've gotten a real explanation.
Now, what about the selective blocking. How does THAT happen -- being able to edit one page and not another, when the article I can't edit is open for editing?
I've been told that such a thing is "impossible," but it's happened to me many times.
Does anyone have an explanation?
dcv