_______________________________________________Hi,
Thanks for raising the topic. Being a steward for 14+ years, I've followed closely the evolution of that problem.
“When I noticed that range blocks caused more harm than good (countless mails to stewards), I started to reduce the length of any such block (if necessary at all; I check every single range intensively if a block would case more harm than good). The situation with OPs is a bit different because they obfuscate the original IP address which is pretty often needed by checkusers and stewards to stop harm against the projects. For that reason, I agree that we cannot give up on OP blocking. The only way to get out of these problems are (much!) easier reporting ways, more people who can give out exceptions (locally and globally) and check outdated OPs and IPBEs. Maybe it would also make sense to give long-term users an option to self-assign an IPBE (e.g.) once per week for x hours for such cases like edit-a-thons. Most of their IP addresses used would still be reported (in order to prevent abuse) but most problems for that one moment would be solved (and users could look for long-term solutions).”
Why the quotation marks? Because I've posted that very same message to the metawiki page and understand it as one step towards a solution. In my opinion, it makes way more sense to talk publicly about the issue and possible solutions than losing good ideas (and there have been some already in this thread!) in the wide world of this mailing list. Let's have that conversation onwiki—and I also encourage the WMF tech departments to join in that conversation. Because we as stewards have reported our problems with the current situation multiple times, sought for technical solutions (e.g., better reporting tools), indeed did get a better rapport with the WMF teams but still are not where we need to be in order to serve both interests (openness and protection). Unsurprisingly, also stewards are individuals with different opinions and (possible) solutions to that one problem. As Vito said, we will once again discuss it and will share our thoughts and solutions.Best,DerHexer (Martin)Am Mittwoch, 20. April 2022, 20:19:48 MESZ hat Florence Devouard <fdevouard@gmail.com> Folgendes geschrieben:_______________________________________________Hello friends
Short version : We need to find solutions to avoid so many africans being globally IP blocked due to our No Open Proxies policy.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/No_open_proxies/Unfair_blocking
Long version :
I'd like to raise attention on an issue, which has been getting worse in the past couple of weeks/months.
Increasing number of editors getting blocked due to the No Open Proxies policy [1]
In particular africans.
In February 2004, the decision was made to block open proxies on Meta and all other Wikimedia projects.
According to the no open proxies policy : Publicly available proxies (including paid proxies) may be blocked for any period at any time. While this may affect legitimate users, they are not the intended targets and may freely use proxies until those are blocked [...]
Non-static IP addresses or hosts that are otherwise not permanent proxies should typically be blocked for a shorter period of time, as it is likely the IP address will eventually be transferred or dynamically reassigned, or the open proxy closed. Once closed, the IP address should be unblocked.
According to the policy page, « the Editors can be permitted to edit by way of an open proxy with the IP block exempt flag. This is granted on local projects by administrators and globally by stewards. »
I repeat -----> ... legitimate users... may freely use proxies until those are blocked. the Editors can be permitted to edit by way of an open proxy with the IP block exempt flag <------ it is not illegal to edit using an open proxy
Most editors though... have no idea whatsoever what an open proxy is. They do not understand well what to do when they are blocked.
In the past few weeks, the number of African editors reporting being blocked due to open proxy has been VERY significantly increasing.
New editors just as old timers.
Unexperienced editors but also staff members, president of usergroups, organizers of edit-a-thons and various wikimedia initiatives.
At home, but also during events organized with usergroup members or trainees, during edit-a-thons, photo uploads sessions etc.
It is NOT the occasional highly unlikely situation. This has become a regular occurence.
There are cases and complains every week. Not one complaint per week. Several complaints per week.
This is irritating. This is offending. This is stressful. This is disrupting activities organized in good faith by good people, activities set-up with our donors funds. And the disruption is primarlly taking place in a geographical region supposingly to be nurtured (per our strategy for diversity, equity, inclusion blahblahblah).
The open proxy policy page suggests that, should a person be unfairly blocked, it is recommended
- * to privately email stewards
wikimedia.org.
- * or alternatively, to post a request (if able to edit, if the editor doesn't mind sharing their IP for global blocks or their reasons to desire privacy (for Tor usage)).
- * the current message displayed to the blocked editor also suggest contacting User:Tks4Fish. This editor is involved in vandalism fighting and is probably the user blocking open proxies IPs the most. See log
So...
Option 1: contacting stewards : it seems that they are not answering. Or not quickly. Or requesting lengthy justifications before adding people to IP block exemption list.
Option 2: posting a request for unblock on meta. For those who want to look at the process, I suggest looking at it [3] and think hard about how a new editor would feel. This is simply incredibly complicated
Option 3 : user:TksFish answers... sometimes...
As a consequence, most editors concerned with those global blocks... stay blocked several days.
We do not know know why the situation has rapidly got worse recently. But it got worse. And the reports are spilling all over.
We started collecting negative experiences on this page [4].
Please note that people who added their names here are not random newbies. They are known and respected members of our community, often leaders of activities and/or representant of their usergroups, who are confronted to this situation on a REGULAR basis.
I do not know how this can be fixed. Should we slow down open proxy blocking ? Should we add a mecanism and process for an easier and quicker IP block exemption process post-blocking ? Should we improve a process for our editors to pre-emptively be added to this IP block exemption list ? Or what ? I do not know what's the strategy to fix that. But there is a problem. Who should that problem be addressed to ? Who has solutions ?
Flo
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/No_open_proxies
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Log/Tks4Fish
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/No_open_proxies/Unfair_blocking
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