Forum:When a "new user" can become not-so-new and edit contents ?


 * Jump down to daNASCAT's http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb32675/wikia/images/e/e9/WikiaStaff.png official response explaining the criteria for a "new user".

I just want all registered users to be allowed to edit pages in my wiki.

When I protect a page, options are "Allow everyone" (which I don't like, because I don't want unregistered users to edit) and "Block NEW and unregistered users".

I choose the latter, but new users cannot edit pages.

How can I do....?

Many thanks.

Flatline1963 11:01, October 21, 2011 (UTC)


 * Blocking unregistered users on pages where there isn't a history of vandalism is against Wikia's terms of use, anyone may edit a wiki --  Random Time  16:36, October 20, 2011 (UTC)


 * RT, please point to where in the terms of use it says you can't prevent unregistered users from editing a page without a history of vandalism. I couldn't find anything like that in the Terms of Use. Please don't spread misinformation like that. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 25 Oct 2011 5:35 PM Pacific


 * It is indeed wise to check on the way you should treat people. Policies and guidelines have been set up. Wookiepedia has them clearly outlined in friendly words too. Basically it's assuming good faith and thus giving trust to anyone editing the wiki that they do that to help improve the content untill showing otherwise.


 * I am perfectly happy with everybody editing my wiki's pages. But, I'd like to know WHO they are. Which happens when registered users are allowed to edit contents.
 * If this offends policies, I apologize and will look elsewhere.
 * Flatline1963 11:01, October 21, 2011 (UTC)
 * You can always see who is editing the content in the history. Whether it is name X or IP Y should not make much difference. Hence, most edits on wikis are done by not logged in users. I think about 40% of the content is contributed by people not logged in. But if you want to have a forced log in wiki you probably are not at the right place. Both wikipedia and wikia do not support forcing people to log in. They however do actively encourage them to log in.
 * Thank you for your kind reply.
 * I must admit that whether it is name X or IP Y makes MUCH difference to me, due to my idea of community of people, where the user X is a very different thing from IP Y.
 * If this idea is wrong, maybe you are right: I'm probably not at the right place.
 * Thank you again.
 * Flatline1963 10:33, October 22, 2011 (UTC)
 * I do not quite follow your logic why it is so utterly important to have people log into their account. If they do not use their userpage nor talk page it's about the same knowledge you have about them as if they where not logged in. Exactly zero except for the information they changed on the wiki.
 * So why are you making it hard for yourself on this subject? What is behind your 'demand' to make people log in?
 * Those who are interested will (maybe eventually) make an account and make that userpage and talkpage more personal. Yet you will hardly know the person behind it even if (s)he shares almost everything except his/ her bank account, unless you regularly chat with him/ her. The basic point here is communication. If you contact people and be nice to them, they will like it, and most likely soon create an account. For those who don't, they may have no interest in staying at your wiki anyways. If you want them to be communicating before they are allowed to edit the wiki, then i have to indeed give you an heads up about it that it won't be possible to do that with the majority of people on your wiki. Most of them don't want to be forced into anything and want to decide on their terms if they like to participate. Being nice and friendly helps in making them consider it worth their while. Good content at the wiki is another great motivator.
 * >> I do not quite follow your logic why it is so utterly important to have people log
 * >> into their account. If they do not use their userpage nor talk page it's about the
 * >> same knowledge you have about them as if they where not logged in. Exactly
 * >> zero except for the information they changed on the wiki.
 * >> So why are you making it hard for yourself on this subject? What is behind
 * >> your 'demand' to make people log in?
 * Only the fact - as I already said - that I'd like to know WHO is the person.
 * This looks only natural to me, therefore if this looks so strange to you, I agree I'm not at the right place.
 * I don't agree that there is no difference "except for the information they changed on the wiki.", because in a small community (as my wiki's community is) everybody know each other.
 * Thank you again for your answers.
 * Flatline1963 23:20, October 23, 2011 (UTC)
 * What exactly do you 'know' about them except their username, what they shared on their userpage and the contributions they made?
 * Do you know their real name, the place they live in, how they look like, their favorite color, if they go to school, work or if they are self employed/ entepreneur?
 * Yes, yes, yes, yes and again yes.
 * I know all of them, because I have often beers with them. We are all part of a human community. We share our interests in a lot of ways, and we all would like to make our wiki one of these ways.
 * Is this unpolite, or somehow offending to the Wikia policies ?
 * Frankly, It looks weird to me, however I apologize again (didn't I do it already...?), unfortunately I couldn't find these rules in the terms of service. Maybe it's my fault.
 * By the way: I'd like to recall that my original question wasn't about "how to prevent unregistered users to edit my wiki" (it is easy), it was about "how to allow NEW registered users to edit my wiki".
 * All the best.
 * Flatline1963 17:14, October 26, 2011 (UTC)
 * Really, you won't get to know people unless you chat with them for quite some time. For 'unknown' people to become known takes time. It doesn't matter if they are logged in or not. Beside that, most people aren't dedicated into doing chores and wiki's can become like that if you take them very seriously. Fun is a big part of editing.
 * Flatline1963 17:14, October 26, 2011 (UTC)
 * Really, you won't get to know people unless you chat with them for quite some time. For 'unknown' people to become known takes time. It doesn't matter if they are logged in or not. Beside that, most people aren't dedicated into doing chores and wiki's can become like that if you take them very seriously. Fun is a big part of editing.


 * Hi, I'm stepping in here as this discussion seems to be taking a bad turn. Locking all the pages the original poster described is not against our Terms of Use. It is, however, counterproductive to growth of a wiki and makes maintenance hard in the future. There is a setting that allows for anonymous editing to be turned off on a wiki. We don't like touching that setting because stats clearly show that limiting access to editing on a wiki hurts growth, especially on a new wiki. However, if you can make a clear case for why it is needed, we will follow the community agreement.


 * There was also the question of what makes a "new user". "New user" usually means a MediaWiki user right called "autoconfirmed". Thus if you are brand new you are not autoconfirmed until the autoconfirmed date requirement (on Wikia, three days after registration) and autoconfirmed amount of edits required (on Wikia, zero edits) passes. --daNASCAT http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb32675/wikia/images/e/e9/WikiaStaff.png (help forum | blog) 17:22, October 26, 2011 (UTC)


 * Thank you very much for your clear explanation.


 * First question: why do I need to prevent anonymous users from editing.
 * I'm a strong supporter of wiki concepts, however I think that there are many different cases. The matter primarily concerns the concept of "community": there are many types of community: open, semi-open, closed, growing, static, etc. I think that there are many reasons why all of them may find useful and enjoyable to use a wiki to share their "knowledge base".
 * In my very specific case, I'm running a roleplaying campaign as a game master; I and my fellow players have decided to setup a wiki in order to store our growing game knowledge in a cooperative way.
 * Funny, isn't it ?
 * Of course all of us should be allowed to edit it, but it's only reasonable that nobody else can do it, and that we want to know who of us has posted a specific content.
 * Is it somehow a misbehavior ? Have I misunderstood the goal of the wiki philosophy, thinking that a wiki can be tiny and closed sometimes, depending on the nature of the underlying community?
 * Frankly, I don't think so.
 * Therefore, I think that if I had the option to turn off anonymous editing for my wiki this would work greatly for me. Otherwise, I'll spend a couple of hours of work to setup my wiki on the server I have in my kitchen and I'm outta here. But, frankly, I think that many other small or great communities would take advantage of this option: why force them to get into social networks when wiki is much more useful and enjoyable ??

Thank you for your answer: three days are a good deal, I can wait so long :-)
 * Second question: what makes a "new user".


 * (someone can say: "if you had answered first to the latter question, you had saved the boring answer to the former". Maybe you're right, but I thought it was useful explain my ideas.)
 * Flatline1963 18:13, October 26, 2011 (UTC)


 * Tagging FAQ. By the way, WoWWiki doesn't allow anonymous edits at all. I can't even imagine the amount of vandalism if it allowed anonmymous edits, but maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Currently we get mostly obvious spam or sneaky vandalism where people add information that sounds accurate, but is totally bogus. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 26 Oct 2011 4:33 PM Pacific