Imran Ghory wrote:

Bad idea, the ease of making contributions is one of our major "pull" factors. Also some people don't have a non-yahoo/hotmail account.

I think Wikipedia has grown to a point where pulling in more contributors is less of a priority than retaining quality contributors and encouraging good behavior. Somehow we have to come to terms with the fact that contributing to Wikipedia isn't a RIGHT, it's a PRIVILEGE, like driving, and that as a privilege, it comes with responsibilities. (Specifically, the responsibility to refrain from abuse.) There's no way to ensure that people fulfill their responsibilities without some sort of identity-verification system to prevent people from coming back repeatedly using anonymizers and multiple accounts. Right now, all it takes is a few really dedicated assholes like Bird to put a major hurt on the Wikipedia.

Limiting number of contribution doesn't really seem to have any advantages, after all if a user goes on a vandalism spree they could easily use multiple accounts. And having all of their "contributions" under one account allow for us to block them more easily.

This is precisely what requiring email verification would prevent. If someone has to supply a non-yahoo/hotmail account to register, they COULDN'T "easily use multiple accounts."

--Sheldon Rampton