Again, I want to calm you down mentioning my upcoming software;) (I do that a lot, don't I?)

There will be ways to "protect" pages so that a) only people who are logged in can edit that page b) only people with a certain "status" can edit that page. The status can be granted and revoked by "higher authorities", so we won't have to trade a password and change it the first time it gets abused (just revoke the status of the person who messed up the page)

Before you start screaming, I know that "higher authorities" is something most people on this list won't like, but in fact, everybody with root access to the wikipedia server already has that position. So, I'm not introducing something new here, I'm just fine-tuning our methods to get rid of the trolls.

Magnus

-----Original Message----- From: wikipedia-l-admin@nupedia.com [mailto:wikipedia-l-admin@nupedia.com]On Behalf Of Jimmy Wales Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2001 2:57 AM To: wikipedia-l@nupedia.com Subject: [Wikipedia-l] Temporary measures

I have looked into this a little bit more -- I just realized that the existing software does give us some tools to combat this kind of vandalism.

First, I have fixed it so that only editors can edit the HomePage. I think this is less desirable than our ideal system in which all the regulars magically and transparently have this power.

If you want to edit the homepage, email me for the administrator password -- I will give it out more or less willy-nilly to anyone who I know. If the vandal starts using the password, then we'll know it is an "inside job" and we'll have to think harder.

Second, I have added some ip numbers to the banned list. I'm prepared to add more. This is less than 100% ideal, obviously, since innocent people might be at the same ip numbers.

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•    You can edit this page right now!      *
  

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