Re: Voting for nym

[cyphrpunk <cyphrpunk@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 12/20/05, Jason Holt <jason@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> There's no point in writing a proxy if it'll still require support on
> wikipedia's end.  To be zero-barrier, the proxy would have to:
>
> * maintain a table of "nymuserXX" wikipedia logins
>
> * automatically login to wikipedia using the one corresponding to the
> connecting nym user
>
> * prevent the client from logging out or doing other things that would let
> them hide behind the nym proxy using anything other than their assigned
> pseudonym.

I would see a proxy as being, from Wikipedia's point of view, like an
ISP. It would be like aol.com or, more analogously, momandpopisp.com,
some ISP with a number of users. If one misbehaves at Wikipedia they
probably don't block the whole ISP. That would be an unfriendly action
that would give them a bad reputation. Instead they probably make an
effort to contact someone at the ISP responsible for abuse and tell
them about the user who caused trouble, letting the ISP block him.
Only if an ISP were persistently unresponsive to abuse complaints
would they be justified in blocking the entire ISP, and I imagine that
this is exactly what they do.

If so, the need is for the anonymous proxy to be able to provide the
same level of service. I have outlined in previous messages how it
could do so, using similar technology to Jason's nym server. It would
hand out usage tokens, one to a customer, and black list tokens which
commit abuse.

BTW Jimmy Wales himself suffered some embarrassment a few weeks ago
when it came out that he had edited his own Wikipedia entry (an action
that is frowned upon) to change it and make himself look better and
more important. If only he had been able to use Tor to create a nym
account he could have avoided all this trouble. Setting himself up as
the sole founder of Wikipedia and removing the name of that other
fellow who had been given credit could have been done without making
Jimmy look bad. So I think we definitely have a friend on the inside,
we just need to get him involved in pushing for this.

CP