Wil, thank you for the announcement of your site. Although things there were in a bit of a chaotic state the last time I looked at it and there are clearly some bugs to be worked out, we will see whether it can ultimately emerge as a fruitful discussion forum.
With regard to potential impersonation user registrations, including users registering in the names of "prominent Wikipedians," or for that matter of prominent Wikipedia critics, it is essential that you take steps to verify the identity of registrants using such usernames. Existing criticism sites such as Wikipediocracy and previously Wikipedia Review have consistently checked such registrations before allowing postings, and it is good practice that they do so, to avoid potential negative impacts not only on the persons potentially impersonated but on the reputations of their sites as well. (There are other issues as to which those sites do not epitomize good practice in my view, but this one they get right.) Similarly, I assume that such checks are performed on Wikimedia mailing lists such as this one. There is every reason that offwiki can do so as well and I hope you intend to. Regards, Newyorkbrad On 7/9/14, Wil Sinclair <w...@wllm.com> wrote: > Hi all, I've started a new wiki called Offwiki: http://offwiki.org. > Our community discusses potential changes to Wikipedia and its > Wikimedia sister projects that aren't easily discussed in forums like > this mailing list. We also try new ideas that we hope will be adopted > on-wiki- both social and technical in nature. > > But that's not the primary reason I'm writing all of you. I've noticed > that many prominent Wikipedians have created accounts to avoid > impostors claiming their very public usernames for themselves. My > apologies, but Wikimedia doesn't run an OpenID server, and there's > really no other way for me to confirm identities before a user has > created a username. The problem is technical, and AFAIK there is > nothing I can do about it. > > So, if you're concerned about your username being phished out, then > consider creating an account at http://offwiki.org/wiki/Main_Page. > Maybe you'll even stick around for a few minutes to see what we've > been up to. :) > > Thanks. > ,Wil > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
