On 12/20/05, Wikipedia Romania (Ronline) rowikipedia@gmail.com wrote:
About a week ago, something quite signficant happened - anonymous users were no longer allowed to start new articles. I said back then that that wasn't such a major move, and it's isn't. However, let's not let that become a slippery slope for all sorts of new policies that seek to restrict the freedom, and by extension the success, of Wikipedia.
It's my opinion that the success of the English Wikipedia depends on getting some controls in place. Too many of our articles are degrading in quality precisely because anybody can edit them.
At the Romanian Wikipedia, we have some of the most liberal policies on blocking and vandalism. And, so far, there haven't been any major problems - no media reports, no huge glaring errors, etc.
What works for rowiki may not work for enwiki.
Remember, our goal here is to write an encyclopedia. Open editing is a tool that may or may not benefit that, and each language edition must make a decision whether or not to allow open editing. Wikipedia is absolutely not a free speech forum.
Kelly