Talk:IP Editing: Privacy Enhancement and Abuse Mitigation/Archives/2022-06
Latest comment: 2 years ago by STei (WMF) in topic Questions on the usernames generated to the unregistered users under the session based method
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WMF Update: IP Info Feature now available on all wikis for beta testing
IP Info Feature has been deployed to all wikis as a beta feature.
After an initial run on testwiki we received a good amount of feedback. Here is a summary of the key pieces of feedback:
- The biggest and most important feedback was about the data quality of MaxMind. MaxMind's data quality, especially about proxy data, is not great. We have reached out to Maxmind about this and are also actively talking to Spur to get their data feed. Once we are able to obtain Spur's data feed we will be able to integrate it into the feature and show information from multiple data sources.
- We heard about the interface being unclear about what information is available and what isn't. We are working on improving the labels and providing better guidance about the information displayed.
- We heard a request about expanding the tool to include global information and also include information about IPs that have not made any edits on the given wiki. We will be looking more into both of these requests. We have done some prior investigation into showing global information.
We would love to hear more feedback about the feature, please share comments on the IP Info Feature discussion page. Your feedback will help improve the tool.
–– Best, Anti-Harrasment Tools Team — The preceding unsigned comment was added by STei (WMF) (talk) 14:38, 14 June 2022 (UTC)
Questions on the usernames generated to the unregistered users under the session based method
I have several questions regarding the usernames generated to the unregistered users under the session based method.
- Do the usernames generated to the unregistered users have a certain prefix, such as “Unregistered user ABC”?
- Do the usernames generated to the unregistered users can be registered by either the unregistered user or others and added on the CentralAuth?
- Will usernames which are not registered locally but in the CentralAuth system being allocated to the unregistered users?
- Do the usernames which are reserved for such propose are globally reserved (i.e. The username are on hold from register in all wikis)?
- How many usernames are reserved for such porpose if the usernames are generated randomly instead of using a certain prefix?
- How can I know if a certain username is reserved for allocation for the unregistered users?
- Do the usernames generated to the unregistered user are same in all wikis?
- Will the reserved usernames being appeared in the CentralAuth?
These are the questions that I would like to know. Thank you. 49.182.189.38 08:35, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
- We are still making decisions about username conventions. However, any auto-generated username for unregistered editors will be based on a cookie placed in their browser. The generated username for User:192.168.1.2 might look like User:Anon3406 as an example.
- ––– STei (WMF) (talk) 12:48, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
- Thanks for letting me know. I believe that usernames with the same prefix would be a good idea on distinguishing unregistered users. 49.182.189.38 13:07, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
- @STei (WMF): I have an idea on the usernames for the allocation of unregistered users. At the moment, usernames which like an IPv4 address (such as User:999.999.999.999) are marked as invalid to be registered instead of being banned by title blacklist. Those fake IPv4 addresses are also different from the other unregistered usernames when viewing on Special:Contributions (example: Special:Contributions/Global rename script, which is also invalid to register due to other reasons, have words "User account "xxx" is not registered.", while Special:Contributions/999.999.999.999 do not). I believe that it would be a good idea on using those usernames (from User:256.0.0.0 to User:999.999.999.999) given that those usernames are currently invalid to be registered, no new ranges of currently registrable usernames being reserved for such propose. It can also help the identification of unregistered users by the others given that they are similar to the IPv4 address. It is also easier on updating the abuse filter on distinguishing unregistered users. There are some wikis (such as zhwiki) prohibit the creation of user page of the unregistered users by using title blacklist which currently also includes those invalid IP addresses (in zhwiki at least). It will help on no further changes of the title blacklist is required on those wikis. Using those usernames of the fake IPv4 addresses from User:256.0.0.0 to User:999.999.999.999 will be able to allocate 744 billion usernames to unregistered users, which is more than enough given that the global population is only about 8 billion at the moment. I hope that this option can be considered when making the decision of the usernames. Thank you. 202.144.171.1 04:03, 12 July 2022 (UTC)
- Thank you for the feedback. ––– STei (WMF) (talk) 16:55, 12 July 2022 (UTC)
- My thoughts - There should be no words, letters, or characters, since these usernames need to be able to serve all the languages in the entire world, so if should be numbers only. But, it needs some human-readability. I would suggest date of first use, hyphen, and a consecutive numbers, something like User:20220724-248. Oiyarbepsy (talk) 22:25, 24 July 2022 (UTC)
- I have also an idea. To prevent the usernames which are currently registrable becomes invalid, it is possible the usernames can be start with / (i.e. User:/12345). “/“ is currently uses as the subpages in the user namespace so it is not possible for the pages start with /. It is invalid to be registered with the character /. As there should have something before the subpages. It is not possible for the user page and user talk pages start with /. I believe that it would be possible to prevent the current registrable usernames become invalid to be registered. Hope you can also consider it. 49.182.153.225 23:19, 24 July 2022 (UTC)
- Thank you, I am noting your suggestions. Thanks all. cc @Oiyarbepsy ––– STei (WMF) (talk) 10:46, 25 July 2022 (UTC)
- I have also an idea. To prevent the usernames which are currently registrable becomes invalid, it is possible the usernames can be start with / (i.e. User:/12345). “/“ is currently uses as the subpages in the user namespace so it is not possible for the pages start with /. It is invalid to be registered with the character /. As there should have something before the subpages. It is not possible for the user page and user talk pages start with /. I believe that it would be possible to prevent the current registrable usernames become invalid to be registered. Hope you can also consider it. 49.182.153.225 23:19, 24 July 2022 (UTC)
- My thoughts - There should be no words, letters, or characters, since these usernames need to be able to serve all the languages in the entire world, so if should be numbers only. But, it needs some human-readability. I would suggest date of first use, hyphen, and a consecutive numbers, something like User:20220724-248. Oiyarbepsy (talk) 22:25, 24 July 2022 (UTC)
- Thank you for the feedback. ––– STei (WMF) (talk) 16:55, 12 July 2022 (UTC)
- @STei (WMF): I have an idea on the usernames for the allocation of unregistered users. At the moment, usernames which like an IPv4 address (such as User:999.999.999.999) are marked as invalid to be registered instead of being banned by title blacklist. Those fake IPv4 addresses are also different from the other unregistered usernames when viewing on Special:Contributions (example: Special:Contributions/Global rename script, which is also invalid to register due to other reasons, have words "User account "xxx" is not registered.", while Special:Contributions/999.999.999.999 do not). I believe that it would be a good idea on using those usernames (from User:256.0.0.0 to User:999.999.999.999) given that those usernames are currently invalid to be registered, no new ranges of currently registrable usernames being reserved for such propose. It can also help the identification of unregistered users by the others given that they are similar to the IPv4 address. It is also easier on updating the abuse filter on distinguishing unregistered users. There are some wikis (such as zhwiki) prohibit the creation of user page of the unregistered users by using title blacklist which currently also includes those invalid IP addresses (in zhwiki at least). It will help on no further changes of the title blacklist is required on those wikis. Using those usernames of the fake IPv4 addresses from User:256.0.0.0 to User:999.999.999.999 will be able to allocate 744 billion usernames to unregistered users, which is more than enough given that the global population is only about 8 billion at the moment. I hope that this option can be considered when making the decision of the usernames. Thank you. 202.144.171.1 04:03, 12 July 2022 (UTC)
- Thanks for letting me know. I believe that usernames with the same prefix would be a good idea on distinguishing unregistered users. 49.182.189.38 13:07, 23 June 2022 (UTC)