On Mon, Jan 13, 2014 at 9:10 AM, Chris Steipp csteipp@wikimedia.org wrote:
To satisfy Applebaum's request, there needs to be a mechanism whereby someone can edit even if *all of their communications with Wikipedia, including the initial contact* are coming over Tor or equivalent. Blinded, costly-to-create handles (minted by Wikipedia itself) are one possible way to achieve that; if there are concrete reasons why that will not work for Wikipedia, the people designing these schemes would like to know about them.
This should be possible, according to https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/NOP, which Nemo also posted. The user sends an email to the stewards (using tor to access email service of their choice). Account is created, and user can edit Wikimedia wikis. Or is there still a step that is missing?
I tested the existing process by creating a new riseup.net email account via Tor, then requesting account creation and a global exemption via stewards@wikimedia.org. My account creation request was granted, but for exemption purposes, I was requested to go through the process for any specific wiki I want to edit. In fact, the account was created on Meta, but not exempted there.
The reason I gave is as follows:
"My reason for editing through Tor is that I would like to write about sensitive issues (e.g. government surveillance practices) and prefer not to be identified when doing so. I have some prior editing experience, but would rather not disclose further information about it to avoid any correlation of identities."
This seems like a valid reason for a global exemption to me, so I'm not sure the current global policy is sufficient.
Erik