Eric <ek79501 <at> yahoo.com> writes:
<monk <at> zoomcon.com> writes:
Hello Abigail,
Tuesday, May 17, 2005, 3:53:28 PM, you wrote:
My first proposal: after I am logged on, I should have the option to disallow my IP address from anonymous posting. So when I am on wikipedia once again, anonymous, the system won't give me the possibility to save changes without logging in (or, may be, pushing explicit button "I want to edit without logging in, with ip-address logged").
This would be a very dangerous facility, if provided. It would mean that anyone using a proxy server could block everyone else using the proxy server, inadvertently.
Why? I don't propose letting to log in only for THAT only user. Any user will be able to log in - or even to post anonymously - it just won't be so implicit.
If we did something like this it would need doing with cookies, I suppose.
I think, usual "remember my password across session" option is already working through cookies. So if cookies are set properly, I will be already logged on. And if I'm not logged on, cookies are wrong - so I think your proposition has little sense...
I'm not sure if I'm in the right list? If not, I apologize. I'm having about these same kinds of concerns. I'll be installing a WIKI for a controversial subject where:
- Users are concerned about their identity, and _cannot_ have their IP's seen
by others. 2) Vandalism could be rampant. For (1), someone advised me and I was able to easily edit ProxyTools.php to always record the IP as 123.123.123.123 and that was great, but ofcourse this has problems if we want to deal with vandals. The only way out would then be to disable anonymous edits, but as someone on this list made the point: If we do that, we're going to loose big time as much less people will edit. So I need anonymous editing, with safety of the users ensured and vandalism taken care of too.
Is there any way where only SysOps can see the actual IP address, while others see the same string "xxx"? A good solution would be to have some sort of a coded IP which would still be a unique number identifying the user but not the real IP which exposes the location of the individual, but this would be too complex.
How can we change it such that, if a Sysop is logged in, he sees the real IP's but if its anyone else, they just see "111.111.111.111" The IP address is recorded in atleast 3 different databases.
I'm trying to find out a way for doing this. Any advice is greatly appreciated!
thank you Eric
WOW.
I think I got the solution to this privacy problem. I'm going to be installing WIKI myself and will hack it for my own needs. The aim is to identity each anonymous edit with a unique number. Right? Well then, a different unique number can be coded using a special formula which ends us up with a 1-to-1 relationship. The coded IP or number which can even be a mixture of Alphabets and Numerals or anything, will never reveal the true IP - but will still be a unique representation for that posting. That easy. If the formula is complex enough, no one can figure it out and hence the IP. Now I gotta figure out how to manipulate text in PHP and to figure out a very complex formula which "encrypts" the IP.
If there's anyone who has to see the real IP, its only the admins. Its not wise at all for every Jack to see the IP's.
Great work, Eric! Patting my own back. I did what these WikiMedia people could not do. Comments eh? Or any advice for the encryption?
Eric