I believe that the 3RR policy change may lead to a profusion of socks,
and based on that, would like to encourage some discussion of socks and
what to do about them.
Sockpuppets are utilized at Wikipedia because they are so effective. A
user who makes careful, effective use of sock puppets is above the
WikiLaw, because bans and blocks are ineffective and there is no
effective means to make users accountable for sock edits.
Efforts to identify sock puppets are divisive, because users familiar
with a certain editing pattern are likely to identify the sock while
others, who are less familiar, will disagree. This divides the
community regardless of who is right.
There are growing numbers of socks, not just infamous editors like EofT,
Michael, Lir, and Wik, but such lesser points of light as Reithy, 33451,
and Alex Plank, and the Goatse uploader who has logged in under over ten
user names in the last week or two. And the user who in quick
succession logged in as SysopMan, CaptainFreedom, and Docmartin2. A
quick review of the block log will reveal more.
I am bringing this up despite its revered status as a third-rail issue
for the mailing list. There are plenty of ways to prevent socks. I've
suggested email confirmation. I've suggested logging all contributors
IPs and making these visible to admins. There are other means. I am
confident that we can find a method to control socks without damaging
the open and free nature of the project.
What does this have to do with 3RR? The 3RR provides additional
incentives to use socks. Anyone remember "Quickpolls?" Socks were a
real problem there, and were one of the things that led to the rising
tension between Wik and Cantus, as each made accusations of the other
reverting using socks. Having airtight 3RR enforcement with no way to
identify socks is rather like having a door but no walls.
When one user is respecting the 3RR and the other is evading it with a
sock, there is no way to restore fairness, because the true identity of
the sock cannot be proven. This is a strong incentive to people to
disregard community norms, and would be damaging to the fabric of the
community.
The Uninvited Co., Inc.
(a Delaware corporation)