On 8/6/07, Matthew Brown morven@gmail.com wrote:
And yes, it sucks. I am quite aware that it sucks. However, Wikipedia right now is in the situation where a user's originating IP is pretty much the basis for any ability to bar editing at all for anyone, since we have so few requirements to create an account. If we permit anonymizing services such as Tor, we effectively no longer have any way to block users or track them at all.
The only other functioning alternative, IMO, is to make it require a lot more effort to qualify for an account, so that it is much harder to create a new Wikipedia identity. I'd submit that doing that is going to change the Wikipedia environment a heck of a lot more than banning anonymizing proxies does. (The other alternative, which appears to be soundly rejected, is giving up on any attempt to use technical information about a user's internet connection and HTTP requests to back up suspicions of sockpuppetry/resurrection).
Your analysis makes at least two major incorrect assumptions: 1) that current IP address blocks are an effective way to stop determined banned users (the kind that would be using TOR); and 2) that there is no possibility for middleground between adminship and getting an account (in technical terms, it assumes that the "ipblock-exempt" can only be granted along with adminship).