Board Thread:New Features/@comment-5275700-20150722200934/@comment-89.241.209.112-20150808000314

I'll begin by correcting a misunderstanding by Imamadmad: I didn't create an account "to get around a bug which only affected IP users" but to verify that it did only affect IP users.

Why don't I use my account (I've still got it)? I don't want to & the more people try to persuade me to use the thing, the less likely I am to do so.

While that's partly my own sheer stubbornness, it's mostly because the representatives of Wikia who try to talk me into using my account, rather than editing as an IP user, never say why they want me to do that. There's plenty of sales talk about the supposed benefits to me but not one word about what Wikia would get out of it. They're obviously eager for me to use my account -- too obviously & too eager -- but why? I'm old enough to be suspicious of sales talk & especially suspicious of sales talk with undeclared motives.

It's also notable that most of the "benefits" of an account are completely artificial. IP users have to put up with annoying ads? That's disingenuous. What it actually means is that Wikia chooses to bombard IP users with annoying ads. It's somewhat like saying, "If you wear the sunglasses I supply, I'll stop shining bright lights in your eyes."

This discussion isn't about reducing malicious edits. It's about Wikia trying to find ways of making IP users sign up, even though those users don't really want to.

On Doctor Who Answers, this would shut out the great majority of the users. Most questions are posted by IP users. Even the suggestion that IP users should be allowed to edit pages but not to create them would be disastrous for DWA, because posting a question is creating a page.

On DWA, it's quite true that most of the vandalism is done by IP users but that only reflects the fact that (other than admin) most of everything is done by IP users.