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by dtech 1521 days ago
Not blocking anything is infeasible due to abuse, requiring registration is effectively blocking anonymous editing access for everyone. If you want anonymous editing, providing it to some is strictly better than providing it to none.

Your argument is as flawed as saying we shouldn't have email because spammers must be blocked.
2 comments
moate 1521 days ago
>>If you want anonymous editing, providing it to some is strictly better than providing it to none.

Objectively: Not always. You're creating a tiered society. The argument is saying "Why do some people deserve freedom but not others?" It's great if you're part of the in-group, but exceedingly unjust if you're non-vandal bycatch due to the blanket bans. You can't have some democracy, it's all or none.

I'm unable to anonymously edit by default because I have T-mobile for my phone and internet services and there is a blanket ban on T-mobile IPs. This is the 3rd largest telcom in the US with about 108 million users. I'm going to assume that less than 1/10th of them are Wikipedia vandals, but a blanket ban has been put in place.

Explain how it's "good" that a random AT&T user can make an edit, but I (or another random T-mobile user) can't? Follow up, explain why making everyone who wants to edit register an account is a net bad if it's the only choice for millions of people?

*edited for typos

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Kim_Bruning 1521 days ago
It is good that a random AT&T user can edit anonymously. It is bad that you can't. The "but" clause is a trap. You should be able to edit anonymously too.

If trends continue, less people will be able to edit anonymously. This trend needs to be reversed so that as many people as possible can edit anonymously.

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NovemberWhiskey 1521 days ago
Actually: if your premise is that you're an open access facility, then having arbitrary treatment of different users is a really excellent way of undermining that premise.

For example, as was pointed out elsewhere on this discussion, having blocking controls that tend to create a higher bar for people without home internet access means you're discriminating against groups that can only afford a personal mobile device, or only have internet access at a library, or come from a particular national origin, etc.

If you care about anonymous editing, creating underclasses that cannot have it seems an unlikely way to further your mission. It's effectively a form of red-lining.

I don't understand what your email analogy is getting at, so I'm going to leave that alone.

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