Beyond the mentioned countries, this is also affecting those who have opted
in to Apple’s Private Relay, which I expect will be somewhat
popular/default once out of beta status. I myself am unable to edit for
example - and half the time I am not bothered to workaround the issue and
just give up the edit.

Also, annoyingly, the block message only shows up when I try to save the
page (at least on mobile), not when I start the edit, again, leading to
unnecessary frustration.

Best regards,
Bence
On Wed, 20 Apr 2022 at 20:42, Alessandro Marchetti via Wikimedia-l <
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:

> Yes, it's getting frequent and not only from people in Africa.
>
> I ended up to trouble-shoot these problems by mails or direct messaging on
> Facebook more and and more frequently, maybe with simple users who just
> know me or have my contact. Sometimes it looks like sharing the duties of a
> sysop or a steward with no power.
>
> It's getting less and less clear how pros and cons are calculated exactly,
> but you just get the feeling that some users really care a lot about this
> policy and you just have to deal with the consequences, no matter how
> time-consuming it's getting.
>
> A.M.
>
> Il mercoledì 20 aprile 2022, 20:34:36 CEST, Amir E. Aharoni <
> amir.ahar...@mail.huji.ac.il> ha scritto:
>
>
> I don't have a solution, but I just wanted to confirm that I agree fully
> with the description of the problem. I hear that this happens to people
> from Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and some other countries almost every day.
>
> The first time I heard about it was actually around 2018 or so, but during
> the last year it has become unbearably frequent.
>
> A smarter solution is needed. I tried talking to stewards about this
> several times, and they always say something like "we know that this
> affects certain countries badly, and we know that the technology has
> changed since the mid-2000s, but we absolutely cannot allow open proxies
> because it would immediately unleash horrible vandalism on all the wikis".
> I'm sure they mean well, but this is not sustainable.
>
> --
> Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
> http://aharoni.wordpress.com
> ‪“We're living in pieces,
> I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore‬
>
>
> ‫בתאריך יום ד׳, 20 באפר׳ 2022 ב-21:21 מאת ‪Florence Devouard‬‏ <‪
> fdevou...@gmail.com‬‏>:‬
>
> Hello friends
>
> Short version : We need to find solutions to avoid so many africans being
> globally IP blocked due to our No Open Proxies policy.
> *https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/No_open_proxies/Unfair_blocking
> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/No_open_proxies/Unfair_blocking>*
>
>
> Long version :
>
> I'd like to raise attention on an issue, which has been getting worse in
> the past couple of weeks/months.
>
> Increasing number of editors getting blocked due to the No Open Proxies
> policy [1]
> In particular africans.
>
> In February 2004, the decision was made to block open proxies on Meta and
> all other Wikimedia projects.
>
> According to the no open proxies policy : Publicly available proxies
> (including paid proxies) may be blocked for any period at any time. While
> this may affect legitimate users, they are not the intended targets and may
> freely use proxies until those are blocked [...]
>
> Non-static IP addresses or hosts that are otherwise not permanent proxies
> should typically be blocked for a shorter period of time, as it is likely
> the IP address will eventually be transferred or dynamically reassigned, or
> the open proxy closed. Once closed, the IP address should be unblocked.
>
> According to the policy page, « the Editors can be permitted to edit by
> way of an open proxy with the IP block exempt flag. This is granted on
> local projects by administrators and globally by stewards. »
>
>
> I repeat -----> ... legitimate users... may freely use proxies until those
> are blocked. the Editors can be permitted to edit by way of an open proxy
> with the IP block exempt flag <------ it is not illegal to edit using an
> open proxy
>
>
> Most editors though... have no idea whatsoever what an open proxy is. They
> do not understand well what to do when they are blocked.
>
> In the past few weeks, the number of African editors reporting being
> blocked due to open proxy has been VERY significantly increasing.
> New editors just as old timers.
> Unexperienced editors but also staff members, president of usergroups,
> organizers of edit-a-thons and various wikimedia initiatives.
> At home, but also during events organized with usergroup members or
> trainees, during edit-a-thons, photo uploads sessions etc.
>
> It is NOT the occasional highly unlikely situation. This has become a
> regular occurence.
> There are cases and complains every week. Not one complaint per week.
> Several complaints per week.
> *This is irritating. This is offending. This is stressful. This is
> disrupting activities organized in good faith by good people, activities
> set-up with our donors funds. **And the disruption** is primarlly taking
> place in a geographical region supposingly to be nurtured (per our strategy
> for diversity, equity, inclusion blahblahblah). *
>
>
> The open proxy policy page suggests that, should a person be unfairly
> blocked, it is recommended
>
>    - * to privately email stewards[image: (_AT_)]wikimedia.org.
>    - * or alternatively, to post a request (if able to edit, if the
>    editor doesn't mind sharing their IP for global blocks or their reasons to
>    desire privacy (for Tor usage)).
>    - * the current message displayed to the blocked editor also suggest
>    contacting User:Tks4Fish. This editor is involved in vandalism fighting and
>    is probably the user blocking open proxies IPs the most. See log
>
>
> So...
> Option 1: contacting stewards : it seems that they are not answering. Or
> not quickly. Or requesting lengthy justifications before adding people to
> IP block exemption list.
> Option 2: posting a request for unblock on meta. For those who want to
> look at the process, I suggest looking at it [3] and think hard about how a
> new editor would feel. This is simply incredibly complicated
> Option 3 : user:TksFish answers... sometimes...
>
> As a consequence, most editors concerned with those global blocks... stay
> blocked several days.
>
> We do not know know why the situation has rapidly got worse recently. But
> it got worse. And the reports are spilling all over.
>
> We started collecting negative experiences on this page [4].
> Please note that people who added their names here are not random newbies.
> They are known and respected members of our community, often leaders of
> activities and/or representant of their usergroups, who are confronted to
> this situation on a REGULAR basis.
>
> I do not know how this can be fixed. Should we slow down open proxy
> blocking ? Should we add a mecanism and process for an easier and quicker
> IP block exemption process post-blocking ? Should we improve a process for
> our editors to pre-emptively be added to this IP block exemption list ? Or
> what ? I do not know what's the strategy to fix that. But there is a
> problem. Who should that problem be addressed to ? Who has solutions ?
>
> Flo
>
> [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/No_open_proxies
>
> [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Log/Tks4Fish
>
> [3]
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Steward_requests/Global_permissions#Requests_for_global_IP_block_exemption
>
> *[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/No_open_proxies/Unfair_blocking
> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/No_open_proxies/Unfair_blocking>*
>
>
>
>
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-- 
-- Bence Damokos Sent from Gmail Mobile
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