https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=38580
--- Comment #12 from MZMcBride <[email protected]> 2012-08-05 22:45:07 UTC --- I guess you'd use <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgEmailAuthentication> to block users from creating new accounts without an e-mail address. Or there's the ConfirmAccount extension, I suppose. $wgEmailConfirmToEdit is only about editing, not creating an account, as I understand it. The request in this bug (as I understand it) is to change MediaWiki's default behavior and require an e-mail address for new account creations. This is ostensibly done as a spam and sock puppet protection measure. As others have noted, given the proliferation of free e-mail hosts and domain wildcarding, this feature does little to stop spam or socking. The broader issue of verifying account identity and attempting to make the relationship of account to person 1:1 is a complex one. There are no easy answers. Every solution comes with costs (e.g., requiring users to provide a credit card or requiring users to receive a phone call or text message). If it were as simple as changing the account creation process to require an e-mail address, someone surely would have implemented that already. :-) I think it's fine to leave this bug as "wontfix." Requiring an e-mail address for new accounts is not something that MediaWiki should be doing by default. System administrators are free to implement a number of options for restricting account creation, but the nature of a wiki is such that it actively encourages participation by outsiders. Requiring an e-mail address by default creates a barrier to entry that simply has unacceptably high costs for the benefit it provides. -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are the assignee for the bug. You are on the CC list for the bug. _______________________________________________ Wikibugs-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikibugs-l
