[WikiEN-l] Accountability: bringing back a proposal I made nearly 2 years ago

[Michael Billington]

There have been many calls for accountability, and they all seem like a good
idea. (including this proposal, of course)

However, I am a tad worried that users who wish to stay anonymous may be
treated as less important than those who have credentials which have been
verified, etc. I know we can say that users are equal, despite
accepting/refusing to do this (optional) verification, but it's a lot like
'optional' RFA questions (which aren't really very optional at all) - at
least in my view.

That's only a minor concern however, and I think that this is a good move
despite that. Particularly, I'm hoping that something like this could do
wonders for public opinion of Wikipedia's reliability and credibility,
especially considering recent events. Has a request been filed in the
Mediazilla yet?

--Michael Billington