Board Thread:Support Requests - Getting Started/@comment-10228869-20130530185808/@comment-188432-20130531155123

452 is right that it's a pretty simple job to do an export and re-import after changing an IP address to be a certain name. If you're concentrating, it's like a 1-minute job.

But there's no way I'd do it — on principle alone.

How can you guarantee me that every edit made with an IP address is something that you did? I mean, it's an IP address, which is, by its nature, changeable. Worse, how can you guarantee me that if I do it for you — just this once, guv'nor, honest! — that you won't hit me up for the same thing next week? Or the week after that? Or — and this is the frightening thing for an admin — that other people won't then start lining up for the same treatment?

I think this is very much a case of, "credit is the central benefit of membership". If you don't log in, you don't get credit. That's the way the system is designed, that's fair to everyone, and that's the way it needs to be.

Since you've posted to the Getting Started board, and not the Getting Technical board, I think the best advice I can give you is this: suck it up. Yes, there's a technical way to help you. But as a matter of administrative policy, offering the service of "retroactive credit" is madness. (Hell, it might even be contrary to the CC-BY-SA 3.0 license to go in and manually alter the list of contributors.)