Wikipedia:Shared IP flagging proposal

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This proposal is an extension of the blocking policy proposal, and aims to further reduce collateral damage by flagging shared IPs.

[edit] Problems

Many legimate contributors edit from shared/dynamic IP addresses. Many vandals also operate from shared/dynamic IPs.

In the past, when a shared/dynamic IP was blocked because someone using that IP was vandalising anonymously, legimate contributors using that IP would also be blocked as collateral damage. This issue has been resolved with the implementation of the blocking policy proposal, and when blocking shared IPs, administrators have the option to block only anonymous users.

Unfortunately, the blocking policy proposal has failed to address another issue. When a registered user attempts to edit when blocked, their IP address is "autoblocked" for 24 hours. If a legimate editor attempts to edit from an "autoblocked" IP address, the MediaWiki software will automatically block them for 24 hours. Autoblocks can sometimes cause severe collateral damage.

Some have suggested the autoblock feature be removed from the software. However, the autoblock feature is useful, as it prevents blocked users from circumventing their blocks, and thus prevents mass creation of accounts by vandals and trolls. In addition, the majority of IP addresses are static.

Administrators cannot see a user's IP address (unless they have checkuser access), and therefore do not know whether the user they are blocking is editing from a shared IP. Nevertheless, the MediaWiki software does record the IP addresses of users (this is how it is able to issue autoblocks). Another problem is that admins sometimes block an IP address without checking/knowing that it is a shared IP address.

[edit] Proposal

Bureaucrats will be allowed to flag and unflag IPs as shared. (In other words, IP addresses will have a "shared" flag, which bureaucrats can modify.) When an administrator attempts to block a registered user, there will be a new option "autoblock this user's IP". Checking this option will autoblock the IP (the current situation), while unchecking this option means the user's IP address will not be autoblocked.

If an administrator attempts to block an IP which is flagged as "shared", a notice will appear informing the admin that the IP is shared. The "block anonymous users only" option will be checked by default, while the "block account creation" option will be unchecked by default. The admin may change these options before issuing the block.

If an administrator attempts to block a registered user, and the user is editing from an IP which is flagged as shared, a notice will appear informing the admin that the user is editing from a shared IP. The "autoblock this user's IP" option will be unchecked by default. The admin may change these options before issuing the block.

If an administrator attempts to block an IP which is not flagged as shared, the "block anonymous users only" option will be unchecked by default, while the "block account creation" will be checked by default. The admin may change these options before issuing the block.

If an administrator attempts to block a registered user, and the IP the registered user is editing from is not flagged as shared, the "autoblock this user" option will be checked by default. The admin may change these options before issuing the block.

There will be a project page where users can request bureaucrats flag an IP as shared. If it is discovered that an IP flagged as shared is not actually shared, the "shared" flag will be removed.