Changes
+some thoughts
I am unaware of any policy that is here at [[WikiIndex]] - I do know that several people who regularly patrol [[RecentChanges]] block these accounts. I think this is a good discussion to have. Best, [[MarkDilley]]
:Pre-emptively blocking all accounts registered at a given timeframe does seem outright wrong to me. Thankfully we have tools like [[mw:Extension:CheckUser|CheckUser]] and [[mw:Extension:LookupUser|LookupUser]] which can be used to determine who is and who isn't a spambot. Usually spambots share some/all IPs, i.e. one IP can be used to register like 10+ user accounts at once. In addition to that, LookupUser (which can be used to view the real name and e-mail address of a registered user account) can help in spotting spambots as they very often use free services (like Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook.com or disposable, one-use mailboxes) with gibberish names; it's probably obvious that nobody's real name is "trbvpLR" and "ichualp5x@[some e-mail provider]" doesn't sound like the e-mail address of a real human being.
:Also, we probably should discuss about implementing [[mw:Manual:$wgEmailConfirmToEdit|Manual:$wgEmailConfirmToEdit]] (i.e. setting <code>$wgEmailConfirmToEdit = true;</code> in the wiki's LocalSettings.php). While spambots sadly can bypass this relatively easily, it would stop the most obvious and laziest spambots. But would it be too much of a nuisance for humans? Personally I think not, as most sites out there require an e-mail and also require you to confirm your e-mail address before the site can be fully used (say, before you can post on a forum, for example)...what are your thoughts on the matter? --[[User:Jack Phoenix|Jack Phoenix]] ([[User talk:Jack Phoenix|talk]]) 11:56, 30 June 2013 (UTC)
== Cannot get account ==
