[WikiEN-l] Anonymous proxies (was Re: Desysop Morwen)

[cprompt]

On Sat, 2004-02-14 at 21:07, Charles Podles wrote:
> Tim Starling wrote:
> 
> > 207.44.154.35 is the popular anonymous proxy http://www.anonymization.net,
> >
> >and as such is used by lots of different vandals. Anonymous proxies are
> >regularly used for vandalism, and once we block one, the vandal just moves
> >to another one. On meta recently we've had a bot operating to vandalise tens
> >of articles, via an anonymous proxy.
> >
> >Would there be any objections to systematically blocking all anonymous
> >proxies on a site-wide basis?
> >
> >
> Are there any *valid* uses for anonymizing proxies, or are they used 
> only to vandalize,
> troll, and dodge hard bans? Can anyone think of a situation in which 
> someone might have
> a legitimate purpose for such a tool? Since I can't, I wouldn't object 
> to a permanent block
> of any and all anonymous proxy services.
> 
> --Charles Podles (en:User:Mirv)
> 
At the absolute least, people using an anonymous proxy should get a
read-only version of the Wikipedia with a notice saying that they're
missing the full functionality through using their proxy. Perhaps they
could also edit talk pages, although those can also be abused.