Forum:Disable IP editing for SmashWiki

Forums: Index → Proposals → Disable IP editing for SmashWiki

This is a closed discussion about a failed proposed change on SmashWiki. It remains for archival purposes. The closing administrator adds: "Clear consensus against this idea.SerpentKing 18:39, January 3, 2020 (EST)"

Due to recent and repeated incidents involving IPs vandalizing articles and adding false information, especially concerning technical data, the idea has been tossed around on Discord for SmashWiki to rescrict IP editing altogether in a similar fashion to Bulbapedia and ZeldaWiki with support seemingly growing and becoming more vocal. This proposal is for the well being of SmashWiki as a reliable, credible, and trustworthy source of information for both the casual Smash Bros. community and the competitive scene. At the moment, I am personally Neutral about this and I know this will probably be a heated discussion, but I feel like officially having a proposal on the wiki itself and having a healthy discussion here is more beneficial than just spitballing in Discord. VoqéoT 13:49, December 27, 2019 (EST)

Support

1. I think preventing literally anyone to edit would improve the wiki's credibility and filter out most of the edit wars waged by IPs. Creating an account is really not difficult. It's gonna save admins a lot of headaches. It will allow for less misinformation because trolls usually don't bother making accounts like they don't always bother getting a role on Discord if the server is locked behind them. Hitbox Enthusiast Zeck (talk) 14:02, December 27, 2019 (EST)
2. Vandalism committed by IPs has been running rampant right now. Not only that, but the fact that IPs can edit most of the pages on this wiki has allowed known vandals to bypass their bans to continue whatever vandalism they were committing before getting banned. Plus, as mentioned above, some of our sister wikis have adopted this practice already, and their community seems to be doing just fine. The idea that restricting IP edits would ruin our community are quite unfounded. If someone really wanted to edit the wiki, they could make an account, which takes very little effort, and I would say only helps our community by giving more actual names to the editors, as opposed to just a bunch of nondescript IPs running rampant and doing whatever they feel is best. Hinata (talk) 14:25, December 27, 2019 (EST)
3. The anonymity of IP edits is honestly the bigger threat as opposed to allowing them to continue without a name associated to them. Since we have no method of administrator approval for IP edits (and therefore, no ability to filter the good edits from the bad), I think it'd be an easier effort to enforce account creation for long-term contributions to the wiki. 15DollarsWentSouth 14:35, December 27, 2019 (EST)
4. I lean towards support primarily because this the best option I can think of for quality control; IPs are generally both our greatest asset and our worst foe, and it can be very, very difficult to keep them in line with the guidelines. I don't think patrollers or anything like that would do much good since we're constantly battling IP edits anyway, and IP blocking seems to be working out for the other wikis; Bulbapedia in particular doesn't have the same quality control issues we do because of how strict they are, and while I don't think we have to go that far it's a good guideline to look toward. The extra step in creating an account isn't difficult for people who want to contribute, but it's more than enough to keep most disingenuous users out. ~ Serena Strawberry (talk) 15:13, December 27, 2019 (EST)

Oppose

1. I would view this as a "last resort" and I think there are steps that should be tried before getting to that point. I'd like to recommend increased enforcement such as a new patroller group like the MarioWiki has. --Porplemontage (talk) 13:56, December 27, 2019 (EST)
2. No, no, a million times no. This is a terrible idea that would only serve to further isolate the Wiki from the Smash community, which like it or not is the community we owe almost all our traffic to. IP editing is an integral part of this Wiki, as it is an integral part of many wikis, and carrying out such a change would reduce the flow of information coming in. As I have said before, it is far easier to undo vandalism than it is to contribute new information to the Wiki, which I know as someone who has done both many times in the past. Many users do not wish to make an account, for various reasons, and requiring account creation does not stop vandalism. Sorry if I am repeating things I have said in the past, but that's what happens when you repeatedly fight similar battles. Alex the Jigglypuff trainer 14:10, December 27, 2019 (EST)
3. Oppose as per the same logic as Porple. Also, if Forum:Character articles protection list were to pass it would greatly reduce the amount of IPs messing around, making this proposal largely redundant. DekZek 14:45, December 27, 2019 (EST)
4. No. Let the previous discussion on this topic take effect before even considering any "next step". Toomai Glittershine The Steppin' 16:34, December 27, 2019 (EST)
5. That's gonna be a no from me, chief. Toomai basically said what I would have. Aidan, the Festive Rurouni 17:40, December 27, 2019 (EST)
6. Eh, as an admin on WikiBound, where IPs are restricted from editing, this looks more like an attempt by those irritated by the recent IP incidents to stop IPs from messing up any article for good. Voqéo mentions that it is especially an issue on the techical data, which we currently have a proposal to resolve this issue that hasn't been passed or failed, so this is way too rushed. Yes some IPs are a pain to deal with, but at the same time a lot of IPs are good faith and have been helpful on a lot of pages, even on character changelists.

Saying "creating an account taks no effort" only makes the support side look worse when saying it will prevent vandalism: that means people can easily also create a vandal account to vandalise pages. Even if IPs can frequently recently vandalize pages, look at the archives on the admin noticeboard, which clearly proves restricting IPs will not stop vandalism.

Another way to resolve this is to have more administrators, or as Porple said, add another patroller group. If you look at the archive, there are plenty if users (myself included) who catch vandals and sock puppets, but can't do anything about it (heck I would like to become an admin here, but I feel I don't have the experience and have jumped the gun in dealing with a few bad faith users in the past). We have had proposals for a new patroller group, all of which have ultimately failed, but if anything something like that would be a much better option than preventing IPs altogether.

Restricting IPs goes against how wikis are community effort and this is taking it a step too far. SupαToαd64 19:31, December 27, 2019 (EST)

1. No because I am a helpful IP. 174.55.24.64 19:36, December 27, 2019 (EST)

I believe that disallowing IPs to edit goes against what a wiki stands for. White Lightning 13:26, January 3, 2020 (EST)

Neutral

1. As mentioned above. VoqéoT 13:49, December 27, 2019 (EST)
2. Although I have gradually leaned more towards the support side with my recent experiences with IPs, I still don't think it's the greatest idea as of right now, especially since 1. there are still helpful IPs and 2. Not all pages are being "targeted" by IPs. My frustration currently stems from the fact that there isn't a way to properly control an IP like a user, since the same person can use different IPs and thereby both get around a block or miss out talk page messages, and if there's a way to control that I would support that. CookiesCreme 14:12, December 27, 2019 (EST)
3. I'm more for protecting the more important pages than disallowing IPs to edit altogether, but whatever solves the problem. Alex95 (talk) 18:24, December 27, 2019 (EST)
4. I think we should wait until this proposal is resolved before we decide anything about disabling IP editing altogether. If we put that proposal into effect and the amount of IPs making unconstructive contributions are still outweighing the number of constructive contributions, i would support this proposal. Though i think it'd be a good idea if we allowed talk pages to still be edited by IPs to suggest edits, similarly to how Wikipedia does for protected pages. Searingjet (talk) 19:00, December 27, 2019 (EST)