Hi guys, there is a proposal for a new form of blocking at [[Wikipedia:Blocking policy proposal]]. In a nutshell would nable to us to block IP addresses, but allow registered users to use that IP address, this would mean "good" users will not be blocked by accident, and vandals from AOL, schools etc. can be blocked.
The main drawback is that more determined vandals could then just register an account and continue vandising, but we can't do much about those determined vandals anyway. Plus we could have some kind of system to further deter vandals from registering, such as having a delay on their account creation or something (see the page for more).
At present the "vote" (yes I know, we all hate votes) looks like it will favour introducing the new kind of block in some form, but of course the ins and outs will probably have to be decided by the developers as to what is technically feasible etc.
What do you guys think? Plus, if it does prove popular, how do we go about implementing it? I have little understanding of the software so am totally lost on that front.
Martin (User:Bluemoose)
On 10/18/05, Martin Richards Martin@velocitymanager.com wrote:
Hi guys, there is a proposal for a new form of blocking at [[Wikipedia:Blocking policy proposal]]. In a nutshell would nable to us to block IP addresses, but allow registered users to use that IP address, this would mean "good" users will not be blocked by accident, and vandals from AOL, schools etc. can be blocked.
The main drawback is that more determined vandals could then just register an account and continue vandising, but we can't do much about those determined vandals anyway. Plus we could have some kind of system to further deter vandals from registering, such as having a delay on their account creation or something (see the page for more).
At present the "vote" (yes I know, we all hate votes) looks like it will favour introducing the new kind of block in some form, but of course the ins and outs will probably have to be decided by the developers as to what is technically feasible etc.
What do you guys think? Plus, if it does prove popular, how do we go about implementing it? I have little understanding of the software so am totally lost on that front.
Martin (User:Bluemoose)
This has been listed on bugzilla forever. we are waiting to see if the developers decide to take it up.
geni
On 10/18/05, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
This has been listed on bugzilla forever. we are waiting to see if the developers decide to take it up.
I wrote a patch enabling logged-in users to edit on blocked IPs ages ago, but decided on balance it might well cause more problems that it would solve. If there is a discussion (not a vote, a proper discussion) on this I'm pleased, and maybe I'll learn something from others' opinions on the matter.
Tony wrote:
If there is a discussion (not a vote, a proper discussion) on this I'm pleased, and maybe I'll learn something from others' opinions on the matter.
Yeah, thats why i brought it here, and made the [[wikipedia:blocking policy proposal]] page, the "vote" is just a way to gauge consensus when there are too many opinions floating around to judge properly what people generally consider the best result. The talk page has significant amount of discussion.
I personally think that having this block plus a time delay of 1 hour on accounts created from the blocked IP address would put off all but the most determined vandals, and even the determined vandals would not be willing to repeatedly wait an hour everytime their new account got blocked. While it might be a bit annoying for the good users who wish to make an account, I don't think it would put them off, and it would easily be a price worth paying.
thanks
Martin
----- Original Message ----- From: "Tony Sidaway" f.crdfa@gmail.com To: "English Wikipedia" wikien-l@Wikipedia.org Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2005 1:50 PM Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Blocking proposal
On 10/18/05, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
This has been listed on bugzilla forever. we are waiting to see if the developers decide to take it up.
I wrote a patch enabling logged-in users to edit on blocked IPs ages ago, but decided on balance it might well cause more problems that it would solve. If there is a discussion (not a vote, a proper discussion) on this I'm pleased, and maybe I'll learn something from others' opinions on the matter. _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@Wikipedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Trouble is that determined vandals are perfectly capable of stockpiling accounts for use in future. And the more anti-vandal measures you implement, the more determined vandals become (see Slashdot).
But at the moment the reason they don't need to stock pile accounts is that they have a free run of Wikipedia anyway!, given the choice I would rather be blocking stock piled accounts than the current situation.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Tony Sidaway" f.crdfa@gmail.com To: "English Wikipedia" wikien-l@Wikipedia.org Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2005 2:35 PM Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Blocking proposal
Trouble is that determined vandals are perfectly capable of stockpiling accounts for use in future. And the more anti-vandal measures you implement, the more determined vandals become (see Slashdot). _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@Wikipedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
On 10/18/05, Martin Richards Martin@velocitymanager.com wrote:
But at the moment the reason they don't need to stock pile accounts is that they have a free run of Wikipedia anyway!,
Actually we're so good at catching and blocking big-time vandals that the serious ones do regularly stockpile usernames.
I meant that vandals using IP addresses that we can't block don't stock pile accounts (because they have no need to), and that if they did begin to stock pile accounts that would be a better situation than present anyway.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Tony Sidaway" f.crdfa@gmail.com To: "English Wikipedia" wikien-l@Wikipedia.org Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2005 2:58 PM Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Blocking proposal
On 10/18/05, Martin Richards Martin@velocitymanager.com wrote:
But at the moment the reason they don't need to stock pile accounts is that they have a free run of Wikipedia anyway!,
Actually we're so good at catching and blocking big-time vandals that the serious ones do regularly stockpile usernames. _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@Wikipedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
On 10/18/05, Tony Sidaway f.crdfa@gmail.com wrote:
Trouble is that determined vandals are perfectly capable of stockpiling accounts for use in future. And the more anti-vandal measures you implement, the more determined vandals become (see Slashdot).
The proposal here is to take away an anti-vandal measure, namely the blocking of logged in users who happen to be using the same IP address as a vandal. So by your rationale, this would cause vandals to become less determined. Of course, I see it more as limiting the collateral damage, and fixing a bug in the mediawiki software which allows vandals to perform a denial of service attack.