[WikiEN-l] Repeated blocks -- collateral damage

[David Gerard]

dcv wrote:

>Now, what about the selective blocking.  How does THAT  happen -- being able
>to edit one page and not another, when the  article I can't edit is open for
>editing?
> I've been told that such a thing is "impossible," but it's happened  to me
>many times.
>Does anyone have an explanation?


That's the bit I mentioned about how each individual *page view* might
come from a different AOL proxy. You're at the same address,
Wikipedia's at the same address, but AOL uses a different proxy in the
middle and Wikipedia sees the proxy's IP, which may be the same or may
be different each time.

(Is it actually completely consistent behaviour per page? i.e., a
given page is always either editable or blocked from editing? If so,
that's something I didn't know before about how AOL does its thing
...)

AOL is a Headache. It's 22% of the US Internet, and that's a LOT of
people. And Wikipedia, being (like AOL) one of those marvellous pieces
of technology that people who can't work computers but are good at
other stuff can use effectively, does in fact want those people in the
pool of possible contributors. But AOL was developed as a completely
separate and unrelated creature to the Internet, and you can still see
the hooks and stitches and bolts and gaffa tape joining the two, and
the way they do things technically looks ... weird.


- d.