Wikipedia:Open proxies

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WP:PROXY redirects here; for "proxying", see Wikipedia:Banning policy#Editing on behalf of banned users.

This page documents an official English Wikipedia policy, a widely accepted standard that all users should follow. When editing this page, please ensure that your revision reflects consensus. If in doubt, consider discussing changes on the talk page.

Shortcuts: WP:PROXY WP:NOP

This page provides information about the use of open proxies to read and edit the English Wikipedia.

For reporting suspected open proxies, see Wikipedia:WikiProject on open proxies

If you have received a message that you are blocked from editing as an open proxy, please see this help page.

1 Policy
2 Rationale
3 Checkuser
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Policy

Open or anonymising proxies may be blocked from editing for any period at any time. While this may affect legitimate users, they are not the intended targets and may freely use proxies until those are blocked. No restrictions are placed on reading Wikipedia through an open or anonymous proxy.

Proxies are left open due to deliberate or inadvertent configuration or because crackers have changed the configuration. Non-static IP addresses or hosts that are otherwise not permanent proxies should typically be blocked for a shorter period of time, as it is likely the IP address will eventually be transferred or dynamically reassigned, or the open proxy closed. Once closed, the IP address should be unblocked.

Further information: Wikipedia:Blocking IP addresses and Wikipedia:Sensitive IP addresses

[edit] Rationale

Although Wikipedia encourages anyone in the world to contribute, open proxies are often used abusively. MediaWiki, the wiki software that powers Wikipedia, depends on IP addresses for administrator intervention against abuse, especially by anonymous users. Open proxies allow malicious users to rapidly change IP addresses, causing continuous disruption that cannot be stopped by administrators. Several such attacks have occurred on Wikimedia projects, causing disruption and occupying administrators who would otherwise deal with other concerns.

This policy is known to cause difficulty for some editors, who must use open proxies to circumvent censorship where they live; for example, citizens of the People's Republic of China, from which access to Wikipedia is currently blocked by the government's Golden Shield Project. Chinese contributors who wish to edit Wikipedia, as well as administrators considering blocking Tor proxies, should sign up for free access to Wikipedia-only proxies at Wikipedia:WikiProject on closed proxies or read Wikipedia:Advice to users using Tor to bypass the Great Firewall.

[edit] Checkuser

When a Checkuser detects that an account has been using open proxies, this information may be considered when evaluating suspicions of sock puppetry or other editing abuses. If there is an appearance that an account has been using open proxies to circumvent policy, the account may be blocked.