[WikiEN-l] Proposal to not allow editing without account

[Stephen Bain]

On 4/11/07, Oleg Alexandrov <mathbot at hemlock.knams.wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
> However, it is also true that the vast majority of vandalism is
> committed by anons, and it takes a tremendous energy to police the more
> than 1.7 milions articles for vandalism.

Most of the *obvious* vandalism is done by IP editors, yes.

But:
* nearly 26% of vandalism reversion is also done by IP editors, [1]
* vandalism accounts for only 3% of edits (plus or minus 1.7%). [1]

I fear the problem looks much bigger to those people who watch
Recentchanges all day.

It also can't be forgotten that the idea that Wikipedia is the
encyclopaedia anyone can edit is a fundamental philosophical
touchstone of the project, and that's why it's one of the
[[m:foundation issues]].

--
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Vandalism_studies/Study1

-- 
Stephen Bain
stephen.bain at gmail.com