Wikipedia talk:The benefits of requiring account creation on Wikipedia
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I think in order to get this point there are two simple questions that have to be answered. First, does requiring an account violate Wikipedia's fundamental principles? If the answer is yes, then end of discussion. Secondly, if it is found not to go against those principles, we have to ask whether the beneficial edits from IPs are worth dealing with all the vandalism of IPs. I understand the points about accountability and privacy, but I think for 90% of Wikipedians it's this question between benefits and vandalism that has to be decided. We've already decided that the benefits of new page creation by IPs was not worth the vandalism. To add my own 2 cents, I think the answer to question #1 is a likely "no", because seeing that edit button at the top of each page is such an ingrained part of this project. We can certainly experiment with levels of protection, stable versions, etc, but I don't think consensus on the ability of IPs to edit will move substantially in the near-term. Joshdboz (talk) 22:38, 11 April 2008 (UTC)
- Presumably you're aware of the current proposal for tagged revisions which is in operation at the de:Wiki; I haven't looked at it in detail but since IP addresses can change so rapidly, it would not seem to make sense for anon IP editors to be able to produce tagged revisions. That situation would reduce a lot of at least visible vandalism, but the downside is that it would downgrade worthy edits by anon IPs until their edits were ratified in some way by a "Trusted" editor. Again, unfortunately, it is difficult to work out a system whereby someone would be considered trustworthy enough that their edits are tagged, but without gaming the system to achieve that status. It's a difficult balancing act, and already this year we have seen an Admin kicked off the project for sockpuppetry, and others leave for extraneous reasons. As I see it, trust is a fragile concept here, and at present, beyond your proposals to require validation by a permanent email address, I don't see a solution. --Rodhullandemu 01:46, 10 May 2008 (UTC)
