Hi, everyone. It is being recently reported on Portuguese Wikipedia and Commons (at least) the increasing ammount of improper editing coming from IP addresses located in Angola. Some users believe that this may be related with Wikipedia Zero and a partnership between WMF and a cellphone company [1] that allows reading and editing at free cost.
One of the first reactions to that is a large range block that was just set on Commons in order to prevent these edits [2], as they are being done in a way that volunteers can't handle. That seems to be some kind of "second wave" as the first that hit Commons [3] had been already reported months ago [4] and seemed to be controled or just paused for a while. On Portuguese Wikipedia, one thing that seemss to be clear is that edits are done in good faith. However, they end by being undone as they are incorrect for some reason, whether being pages of files about themselves or just test edits. One of the users identified actually confirm [5] that he is editing through Wikipedia Zero. Concerning that more partnerships may occur in future, I think it is time for us to start talking about ways of dealing with that, other than blocking. Sadly, I don't have an answer to that problem, but I tend to believe that some way of mass reaching these potential users should be made out. The current process is that editors will be the ones to notice that (as I am not aware of any kind of follow up by WMF on that) and they will try to solve their way, which may cause too many collateral damage. I wonder if there is any kind of way to diminish the problem, by using any off-wiki strategy. Kind regards. Teles [1] - http://www.telecompaper.com/news/movicel-offers-free-access-to-wikipedia--1116012 [2] - https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Steinsplitter&oldid=190598884#Unblock [3] - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Teles/Angola_Facebook_Case [4] - https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimedia_Forum&oldid=12835750#Wikipedia_Zero_being_used_to_violate_copyright [5] - https://pt.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Usu%C3%A1rio_Discuss%C3%A3o:Darwinius&diff=prev&oldid=45095087 *Lucas Teles* *+55 (71) 98290 7553Steward at Wikimedia Foundation. Administrator * *at Portuguese Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.*- wikipedista.com _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
