[WikiEN-l] Proxies aren't againts the rules, they are just blocked. Was: Wikipaedia is an attack site, too. (was Re: There are no...)

[Gregory Maxwell]

On 9/27/07, Brock Weller <brock.weller at gmail.com> wrote:
[snip]
> But i don't use it on the pedia. Because it's not allowed.
> That's the rules as they are now. You know this, i know this.

It isn't against the rules to use open proxies with English Wikipedia,
nor even against them to edit from open proxies. Rather, the standing
and well justified practice is to block them when we find them because
they are used for trouble.

The distinction is subtle but important.

If there existed an open proxy which was an attractive tool for abuse
we wouldn't block it. No such beast exists yet, but they are possible.

For example, http://www.lunkwill.org/src/nym/Readme proposes a system
which would allow us to give people tokens whenever they donate over a
threshold amount to us or perhaps other participating non-profits. The
token could be used to enable tor editing from a single account.  This
way creating vandal accounts would cost $25 (or whatever) each.
Probably a reasonable enough solution, and the pseudoanomity of the
user is strongly preserved.

Or another example,
http://petworkshop.org/2007/papers/PET2007_preproc_Nymble.pdf uses
many of the same cryptographic constructs as above but creates a
system where we could block IPs without ever being able to tell
exactly what they were.

Now that armedblowfish is rate limited perhaps he'll have some time to
work on developing the software needed to make one these into
reasonable options.

> But
> regardless, this is being dragged off topic.

If it's that off-topic then don't reply on list. ;)