[WikiEN-l] Editing with open proxies

[Gracenotes]

On 6/18/07, Slim Virgin <slimvirgin at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 6/18/07, Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org> wrote:
> > I'd support requiring admins to provide their real identity to the
> > foundation.
>
> I'm not sure that would help, unless we're willing to employ
> investigators to make sure people have faxed the Foundation the right
> ID. And knowing that Admin A is called Bill Smith in real life doesn't
> tell us whether he's a banned or malicious user.
>

So long as usernames, passwords, e-mail addresses, HTTP headers, and
other cybernetic elements are involved, you'll be surprised (or, possibly,
not surprised) about the shockingly unscrupulous things that some people
can do. Make sockpuppets, leak information, make themselves popular,
play around with social structure. Things that can harm a community.

However, once such elements as phones and mail become involved, most
20-somethings living in their parents' basement *will* back off, even if
they
can handle faking an identity and getting away with it. Ethics can be more
"cleanly" violated with a temporal stream of bytes than with pen, paper,
and a voice. The law does not cover leaking admin-only-available information
to rival websites. As far as I am aware, it does cover identify theft and
pretending to be someone that you are not, _in real life_.

By seamlessly moving admin actions to a higher (and more much real)
jurisdiction than that of the Foundation, by requiring personal information,
we can preventatively protect Wikipedia against those that would seek
to harm it. Just my opinion, though.