[Wikimedia-l] Update on IPv6

[Brandon Harris]

On Jun 13, 2012, at 11:21 AM, Risker wrote:

> I believe that FT2 is saying that we should seriously consider masking the
> *publicly viewable* IPv6 addresses.  The only reason that we publish the IP
> addresses of any logged-out user is for attribution purposes, although some
> use it for other reasons (both positive and nefarious).  Quite honestly, it
> doesn't matter what information is put in place in the publicly viewable
> logs, provided it's consistent.


	A couple of weeks ago, Brion Vibber and I started walking through a series of thoughts about eliminating publicly viewable IP addresses altogether, creating "Proto Accounts".  That is, to completely anonymize anonymous users (by calling them "Anonymous XXXXXX") and at the same time creating system whereby Anonymous users might be encouraged to become registered users (and retain the edits they did anonymously).

	This would work by "back-loading" the account creation process:

		1) User makes anonymous edit (as "Anonymous 1234").  Edit is logged as "Anonymous 1234").
		2) User is given call-to-action to convert to a registered account.
		3) User fills out account form (username, password, email) (let's call them "AwesomeSauce89")
		4) Proto account gets renamed to "AwesomeSauce89"; the edits that were under "Anonymous 1234" are now listed as being by "AwesomeSauce89"

	I also spoke with Tim Starling about this in Berlin and he agreed that it was a good idea.  However, this would be no small feat.  A big part of the problems involved in this type of anonymizing involve how we deal with range blocks.

	Would this be something people might like to see happen?


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Brandon Harris, Senior Designer, Wikimedia Foundation

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