[Wikipedia-l] A proposal for the new software

[Mark Christensen]

Magnus brings up an important point, which has to do with how this will
interact with namespaces, and particularly the stable namespace.  I think we
need to have some manual control over what goes into the stable namespace,
so that we can be sure that the people approving articles for the stable
namespace actually know what they are talking about.  It may be that people
with enough KP should be trusted to only approve articles on subjects where
they have actual experience, but we may still want some kind of manual check
in place for that function.

Another good point Magnus brings up is that blocked IP's will only work
against people with a static IP address, or against one log in session.
Additionally blocking an IP could stop someone else from being able to use
the wikipedia, if they are later assigned that IP.  Tis' true, but I still
think people with enough KP should be able to block an IP but only
temporarily, and by this I mean a really short time, like an hour or two.
This will be enough to make your average vandal get board and leave, and
will be highly unlikely to effect someone else who might log on with that IP
wanting to edit a page. (Obviously blocking an IP should only disallow edit
access and not mere read access). Actually we should probably have an
automatic IP blocker, which shuts down an IP address for an hour or two if
someone makes more than 10 edits in 30 seconds, to make programmatic
vandalism harder.  

Yours 
Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: Magnus Manske [mailto:Magnus.Manske at epost.de]
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2001 3:41 PM
To: wikipedia-l at nupedia.com
Subject: RE: [Wikipedia-l] A proposal for the new software


As the (main) author of the new software, I'd like to contribute some things
to this debate:

- Watching the actions of a signed-up user will be very simple, even if
he/she logs in from different machines.
- Counting edits/new articles will be as simple.
- After each "karma point" addition, the status could be checked and basic
rights could be given.
- All pages can be locked to give write access only to people with the
necessary user rights.

So, no technical problem with that. But, think about what I originally had
in mind (I mentioned that somewhere already) :

- Have about a dozen "sysops"/administrators. Larry, Jimbo, a few others
(and currently myself, for maintnance;)
- Sysops can do everything: edit other user's rights, delete pages (and I
mean delete, not just remove the contents), mess directly with the database
etc.
- Sysops can create "editors", which have less rights, but of whom there are
many.
- *Everybody* can edit pages in the normal wikipedia namespace
- Good articles can be advanced into an "approved" namespace (by everybody,
or by a special "reviewer" class)
- Editors can advance articles from the "approved" namespace to the "stable"
namespace, or remove it from "approved"
- The "stable" namespace can only be edited by sysops

"Reviewers" and maybe "editors" could also be generated by karma points, or
by LSD ;)

Additionally, central pages could still be protected, and my new variables
will change the date and the number of articles on the HomePage
automatically.

A word to "blocked IPs": Almost everyone who goes online via an ISP gets a
random IP from the ISP every time he/she dials in. Blocking such an IP would
not stop trolls, but it would stop other harmless people who come in through
the same ISP at a later time. We don't want "wikipedia colateral damage",
now do we?

Magnus

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