User:Lexein/AUWP

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Alternate Universe Wikipedia (AUWP) is a proposed proxy/banishment mechanism for dealing non-punitively, and non-confrontationally with disruptive editors. AUWP is a complete, operational fork of the real Wikipedia (RWP) which appears identical to Wikipedia in every respect, including branding, policies, and automatic processes.

AUWP is not intended to be visible to non-banished users or visitors to Wikipedia. It is, in fact, an encyclopedia that almost nobody can edit, and for which, edits are almost guaranteed to be disputed, and unlikely to be retained. It is a forgetting place, both for content, and banished users.

Banishment is permanent. There is no appeal.

Banishees
Editors banished to AUWP can interact with each other, but from then on, interaction with any real Wikipedia resources or editors is impossible. This applies to both IP and registered editors.

Technical
AUWP is proxied from within the real Wikipedia's (RWP) traffic management systems. Banishment routes all traffic from banished users to AUWP, providing an identical, but harmless, mirror for banishees to play in. It is, in a sense, a universal sandbox, which can be reset, or not, at the whim of supervisory RWP keepers.
 * Email this user: functional, but blackholed. Send-copy-to-self works fine.
 * Links to IRC channels: blue, but nonfunctional. In time, interested keepers could build an AUWPIRC pseudo-freenode, where nobody hangs out but banned users.
 * Links to MediaWiki, Wikimedia Foundation: static copies of existing pages. Edit links are blue, but don't function.

Generated users
Autogenerated users will be auto-named, have backdated account creation dates, with realistic edit summaries created as needed. Some generated users will interact with banished users in special ways, such as
 * Enforcing policies in true or inverted ways
 * Reporting banishees to a wide variety of noticeboards
 * Appearing to hijack a banishee's account and make wild edits in their name.
 * Appearing to dispute blocking and unblocking of banishees

Administration
AUWP can be left unmaintained for years without concern. If desired, it can be administered. In AUWP, an administration/bureaucrat class externally referred to as "keepers", are probably recruited from existing RWP rollbackers or clerks who volunteer, and can serve as admin/crat training ground.

The resetting of the sandbox will result in:
 * logged reversions of all edits made by banishees, by generated users. Edit summaries will be generated based on a Markov Chain analysis of the edits made.
 * logged deletion of articles created by banishees, by generated administrator accounts. Types of deletion will initially consist of generated and backdated PROD and CSD tags. AfD synthesis and simulated discussion and closure will require some extra work.

Logging, identification, and retention
Once banished, all user activity and identifying information is relentlessly, and invasively logged specifically for identification purposes, including IP address, geolocation, browser strings, MAC addresses, typing style and timing, contact email address, etc.

Get me out of here!
Unlikely. To be able to again use any real Wikipedia or Wikimedia resources again, the user will need:
 * The intestinal fortitude to truly, deeply make a clean start, and never to use any previously used tools or software again
 * a new IP address,
 * all new web browsers,
 * all new network cards, or at least all new MAC addresses,
 * a new typing style,
 * a new contact email address,
 * a completely new geolocation

Re-use, even accidental re-use, of any old resources used by the banishee will reactivate the banishment instantly, and add all the new personally identifying information to the banishment data suite.

Side effects: This may mean that the banishee may have to continue to pay to retain control over:
 * The old IP address, so that nobody else uses it to contact Wikipedia
 * Old equipment, unless it is assured-destructed, so that it cannot connect to Wikipedia again
 * The old email address, so that it cannot be used as an account email address at Wikipedia again