User talk:68.39.174.238/IP civil rights

Comments on the current attempt to block IPs from creating pages, and possibly other restrictions of their "civil rights" on WikipediA

Occurrence
On or about the Fifth of December 2005 (Depending on your location), user "Brion VIBBER" said he disabled the creation of new, non usr-talk pages by users who hadn't logged in (And thus were identified by their IPs in all things). He claimed this was @ the behest of WikipediA's founder and member of the board Jimbo Wales. Pages of dicussion on the mailing list and on WikipediA itself occurred, continuing up to the present.

As a result people who attempt to "edit" nonexistant pages not prefixed with "User_talk:" receieve message stating they are precluded from doing so.

Reaction
Responses have varied. Since no real attempt at a poll has taken place it is best said that no consensus or even majority has occurred. At least one IP address user has created a template, evidently in protest, of the situation. No one's made seemingly obvious comments about the Fifth of November yet.

Comments on possible and claimed justifications
Repeated references to Seigenthaler suggest someone had some crap written about him and may have made comments about a Court of Law in Trenton, New Jersey. The new proposed policy may be seen as evidence of this.

Of the "diagnosis", it should be noted that a legitimate user could have created a legitimate articel on this man, sans the mentioned "[good]-link[s]" which then could be vandalized by the anon-with-a-grudge.

Possible alternates
If libel is of such concern as to prevent non-logged in editors creating pages and a new policy, other options present themselves:


 * Changing the new text between the editbox and edit summary to state "Content must not: ..., or contain libel".
 * Amend Criteria for speedy deletion to add libelous comments, likely by rewording or expanding the provision against attack pages.

Lack of review due to lack of links was also mentioned, again alternatives suggest themselves:


 * Place a note on newly created pages with no or very few (Such as less then 10) links to them stating that the scarcity of information may result in inaccurate comments.

Overall, placing more emphasis on the general disclaimer, and especially the Risk disclaimer, which explicitly states "PLEASE BE AWARE THAT ANY INFORMATION YOU MAY FIND IN WIKIPEDIA MAY BE INACCURATE, MISLEADING, ... . is probably a good idea, since the link already exists at the bottom of all pages, moving it up to a more noticable place, such as at the top of Special:Cite, may be advisable.

Observations
All these comments about "Siegenthaler"[sic?] suggest someone got burned and hence there is something of a "cover our asses" element to this.

Qualifiers

 * — I appreciate that this, not being a publick site, doesn't have any real right associated with it. The phrase is used because it sounds good and is descriptive. Full disclosure: I'm not the III/3/One vandal.


 * For those of you who have been paying attention, thanx!