Forum:Should I do this on my wiki?

In Muppet Wiki, they give anonymous users a trial period, then warn them that they should log-in or they would be blocked. My wiki is still small and only has two contributors. Will it be a good idea if I do the same thing on my wiki? And how will I know if an anonymous user already made five major edits?


 * — Pikachurin - Talk 01:44, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * I suppose that the Muppet wiki can set any policy they want, although I find that sort of concept to be offensive in a number of ways. I know of several users on Wikipedia who have been long-time contributors (4+ years) that exclusively contribute via anonymous IP addresses for various reasons.  They are solid users and have contributed significantly to both discussions and to content... some even have extensive user talk pages where except for the fact they still don't log in they are full members of the community.


 * For smaller wikis, there is no reason to set up some kind of specific policy in this manner. Watch IP addresses closely and some gentle encouragement to create a user account can be somewhat helpful, but note that not all vandals come from anonymous accounts either.  To me, anonymous users (IP address users) generally denote somebody new to the wiki process and need all of the encouragement you can muster to help them understand what is going on.


 * My best advise for establishing policies: React to real issues and problems that are happening on your wiki.  Make policies based on real need and don't just arbitrarily create new policies just because you have seen a policy on another wiki.  Rules that attempt to keep bad behavior from happening again tend to be better supported (you can usually achieve consensus on such policies) and have more rationale for being created in the first place.


 * I just fail to see why anonymous edits are such an awful thing, and banning anonymous edits just pushes vandals into creating user accounts to do their dirty deeds. It also creates more obstacles for those less technologically inclined to be able to contribute to your wiki... in other words, it decreases the number of people who can make positive contributions to your wiki.  For a smaller wiki, are you sure you want to drive out potential members of your community?  I can only guess that the Muppet wiki thinks they have more than enough content and contributors to be able to maintain their wiki.  --Robert Horning 05:36, 10 February 2009 (UTC)