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

[Brock Weller]

I should have made a finer distinction, i admit, the user will not be
punished, nor should they be, but open proxies, when known, are
blocked. Against the rules seemed the best way to phrase it :) it's an
artifact of language, not a policy misunderstanding :)

On 9/27/07, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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. ;)
>
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-- 
-Brock