Gergo,
In response to some discussion, I now consider there to be two distinct topics: (1)
MediaWiki software should provide configurable OpenID Connect features for account
verification and account linking, (2) Wikipedia should utilize and configure such features
at all, in a certain way or have a certain policy.
With respect to topic one, MediaWiki software, there are dozens of projects at and outside
of the Wikimedia Foundation which utilize MediaWiki software. There is also an OpenID
Connect extension:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:OpenID_Connect .
With respect to topic two, Wikipedia, account verification features and resultant options
and tools for administrators mitigate a number of problems, including but not limited to:
sockpuppetry [1][2][3], multiple accounts [4], conflict of interest editing [5][6],
advocacy editing [7], propaganda [8], bots [9], griefing [10], trolling [11], spamming,
vandalism [12], fake news [13][14], misinformation [13][14] / disinformation [14],
political manipulation and election interference.
While data is scarce with regard to the number of occurrences of each on Wikipedia, we can
see that the administrative processes of mitigating sockpuppetry, for instance, are costly
and continual, investigations occurring daily [3].
To indicate the importance of the problems listed above, I am searching for more Wikimedia
Foundation materials [14].
Thank you for the hyperlinks. Those interested in the future of credentials technology
might find the W3C Credentials Community Group interesting
(
https://www.w3.org/community/credentials/).
Best regards,
Adam
[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sock_puppetry
[2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Signs_of_sock_puppetry
[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations
[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Username_policy#Using_multiple_acco…
[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Conflict_of_interest
[6]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict-of-interest_editing_on_Wikipedia
[7]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Advocacy
[8]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Propaganda
[9]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Bot_policy
[10]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Griefing
[11]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/What_is_a_troll%3F
[12]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Vandalism
[13]
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/07/17/misinformation-fake-news-censorship/
[14]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017/Sources/Co…
________________________________
From: Wikitech-l <wikitech-l-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org> on behalf of Gergo Tisza
<gtisza(a)wikimedia.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 8, 2018 6:33:24 AM
To: Wikimedia developers
Subject: Re: [Wikitech-l] MediaWiki and OpenID Connect
On Fri, May 4, 2018 at 10:21 PM Adam Sobieski <adamsobieski(a)hotmail.com>
wrote:
In the scenario, after choosing to verify their name
on their Wikipedia
account, a user logs onto Wikipedia and uses OpenID Connect to link their
Wikipedia account to multiple verified accounts, for example their Facebook
and LinkedIn accounts. At the end of the process, we can envision the user
obtaining a checkmark next to their full name on Wikipedia, their real name
and a verification icon appearing next to their edits and on their user
page. There might even be, per user settings, hyperlinks to their Facebook
and LinkedIn pages on their Wikipedia user page. With such features, we can
envision allowing groups of users or admins to determine that certain
articles require a verified account to edit.
There has been a fair amount of discussion (mainly after the Essjay affair)
on verified expert accounts on English Wikipedia, but ultimately the idea
has been rejected. You can read about it at [1].
As others have noted, account linking is a fairly minor convenience for
having verified real-life identities; if there was any intent to make that
happen it would have happened regardless of software support.
Having non-public account linking (as an antispam measure that has better
user experience than captchas) is a more feasible idea IMO; I wrote some
thoughts on that at [2].
If you just want public links to verified accounts in MediaWiki (as opposed
to Wikipedia / other Wikimedia projects), there is nothing stopping you;
you should propose a patch to the OpenID Connect maintainer (all it takes
is probably just adding a hook such as GetPreferences to display the
information at the appropriate place) or write your own extension.
[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:There_is_no_credential_policy
[2]
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Tgr_(WMF)/external_login
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