Last modified: 2012-08-05 22:45:07 UTC
Specifying the E-Mail adress during the account creation process shouldn't be optional but required. That is an old relict of a time where Wikipedia haven't had enough authors, but this negligent setting should be changed to have one more obstacle against sockpuppets and spam-accounts.
On which wiki(s) would you like to see this change? You'll need to gather local community consensus for any Wikimedia wiki (cf. <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requesting_wiki_configuration_changes>).
It should not. And forcing to enter an email is not a defense against sockpuppets nor spam-accounts given that: a) You can provide a fake email and go on editing right away (you would have to attach the permissions to being emailconfirmed). b) You can provide an email already set for another account.
(In reply to comment #2) > It should not. > And forcing to enter an email is not a defense against sockpuppets nor > spam-accounts given that: > a) You can provide a fake email and go on editing right away (you would have to > attach the permissions to being emailconfirmed). > b) You can provide an email already set for another account. So that would be an argument for just providing no adress?
Why would you need an address? There's no need of an email address to edit wmf projects. Why do you want to add that requirement?
Using accounts instead of the IP is not only about "editing wmf projects", it's also about voting other people, gaining administrative rights etc. Only providing a name and a password is not enough for so much responsibility. It is also too easy to create dozens of Spam- and Sockpuppet-Accounts.
Many projects have a policy that a sysop must have an email set in their preferences and 'email from other users' enabled. That's fine and doesn't need to force a change on registration. > It is also too easy to create dozens of Spam- and Sockpuppet-Accounts. Per comment 2, requiring an email field wouldn't make a difference.
If the user must enter an e-mail address, but confirmation is not needed, that's pointless, otherwise we already have $wgEmailConfirmToEdit. Suggest INVALID.
There is no consensus on german wikipedia for this request but there is a community consensus which declined email requirement. [1] The current proposal has been archived without any polling [2] I suggest to close as invalid and reject this request. Thanks. [1]: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meinungsbilder/E-Mail-Adressenangabe_bei_Anmeldung_Pflicht [2]: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Diskussion:Meinungsbilder/E-Mail-Adresse_verpflichtend#Archivierung
(In reply to comment #8) > There is no consensus on german wikipedia for this request but there is a > community consensus which declined email requirement. [1] > The current proposal has been archived without any polling [2] > I suggest to close as invalid and reject this request. Thanks. Please don't reply everywhere, especially not if you do not understand what the report is about. It's a feature request and have nothing to do with the German Wikipedia. Frankly, I don't care about your thughts.
xqt reply is perfectly on-topic, since such change *would* affect dewiki. It also provides interesing insight for their community. Moreover, you can hardly argument that it 'has nothing to do with the German Wikipedia' if you tried to push it there in the first place.
(In reply to comment #10) > xqt reply is perfectly on-topic, since such change *would* affect dewiki. It > also provides interesing insight for their community. > Moreover, you can hardly argument that it 'has nothing to do with the German > Wikipedia' if you tried to push it there in the first place. Reread the bug report. Not a single word was spoken about a local Wikipedia. Since the feature request is not met yet you cannot change the status to INVALID as the request for this feature is still there. The only reasonable compromise would be to set the feature request to WONTFIX since the programmers wont change something at the software structure and $wgEmailConfirmToEdit is useless.
I guess you'd use <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgEmailAuthentication> to block users from creating new accounts without an e-mail address. Or there's the ConfirmAccount extension, I suppose. $wgEmailConfirmToEdit is only about editing, not creating an account, as I understand it. The request in this bug (as I understand it) is to change MediaWiki's default behavior and require an e-mail address for new account creations. This is ostensibly done as a spam and sock puppet protection measure. As others have noted, given the proliferation of free e-mail hosts and domain wildcarding, this feature does little to stop spam or socking. The broader issue of verifying account identity and attempting to make the relationship of account to person 1:1 is a complex one. There are no easy answers. Every solution comes with costs (e.g., requiring users to provide a credit card or requiring users to receive a phone call or text message). If it were as simple as changing the account creation process to require an e-mail address, someone surely would have implemented that already. :-) I think it's fine to leave this bug as "wontfix." Requiring an e-mail address for new accounts is not something that MediaWiki should be doing by default. System administrators are free to implement a number of options for restricting account creation, but the nature of a wiki is such that it actively encourages participation by outsiders. Requiring an e-mail address by default creates a barrier to entry that simply has unacceptably high costs for the benefit it provides.
