Gregory Maxwell wrote:
I asked through IRC at Wikimania whether there were plans to institute global blocks after Single login implementation to prevent this kind of cases. So, the question is: would it be a good idea to do so?
Blocks are really the wrong mechanism for open proxy blocking. They don't facilitate the right workflow.
What we could use is a flagging system. Indications of known open proxies, or known 'vandalism centers' such as libraries or schools which have been used often by vandals, could flag edits and account creations made from such regions.
Admins should also be able to switch in emergency locks on such ranges relatively easily, ranging from visible flagging, to adding a captcha, to a time delay or rate limiter, to blocking editing for anons, to blocking editing for new accounts, to blocking all editing.
Similar locks on edits adding certain phrases can also be useful for mass attacks.
-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)