User talk:TonyBallioni/Just block the /64

Suggested addition

Great non-technical explanation of dealing with /64s. I'd suggest adding a short rationale on why this is necessary compared to IPv4 (particularly the whole IPv6 privacy extension thing meaning that a user might have a different IP every day). I'll throw together a draft of what I have in mind when I'm back on my main account later today. ^creffpublic _{a creffett franchise} (talk to the boss) 17:24, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, I'm imagining something like this:

"Unlike IPv4, IPv6 usually assigns part of its address (the range covered by the /64) based on a network interface's unique hardware identifier. However, that presents some privacy concerns, so many systems use IPv6 privacy extensions to request a randomized address which changes on a regular interval. Thus, if you block a specific IPv6 address, as soon as the address changes the user will no longer be banned." creffett (talk) 22:06, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your thoughts

I do appreciate yours or anyone else's feedback here. So, while what you're saying is true, it is above even the level of technical knowledge I want people to come away with when they read this essay. I made some tweaks to explain it without getting into the details. My target for this essay is someone who had the knowledge on IP networking that I had ~2 years ago, and anything using tech words would have scared me off. TonyBallioni (talk) 22:33, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Tony, although not an admin, I suspect I may have the approximate level of technical knowledge of your target audience. I found it informative (and also went off to check out the other links, and really valued seeing the range table demonstration. The penny started to drop, then. Perhaps you could include a cut down version of it? Can I make the following observations?

You could write this so that it's not targetted exclusively at admins, but also at those editors who might want to understand how to find out if one IPv6 editor has been making bad edits across a range of addresses.
You could expand/explain what is meant by the term 'on a range' and 'the /64', as it still feels like you're assuming the user knows exactly what you mean. You say "...each connection that uses IPv6 has access to many IP addresses on a range,..." - my initial assumption was that you could say "each connection that uses IPv6 has access to many IP addresses across a range that look very similar to one another,..."
I'm assuming that all admins would be faced with some blocking option on their toolset? Would it help to include a screenshot as a demo?
Would it be inappropriate to provide a demonstration IPv6 address link with its contribution, and then a broader contribution set from across the /64 range? I went off and played with that, and found it really helped my understanding of one person's contributions. Helping non admins to use the user contribution search function to include the relevant range would seem sensible.

Hope this has helped, though it's probably only served to demonstrate that I'm not yet at the level of your target audience! Cheers, Nick Moyes (talk) 00:25, 7 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Sure, I'll try to add some tweaks. I considered adding Special:Contributions/2001:8003:DC31:F000:1527:A3FB:1CEF:B7D4/64 as an example since that LTA has been vandalizing the page. As you can see, it's pretty clearly the same guy... I'll look at making the tweaks a bit tomorrow. TonyBallioni (talk) 00:34, 7 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Question

Hi, TonyBallioni. Should you have a spare moment, could I ask you for some help, please? I am still struggling to understanding how, at a practical level, I go about viewing all the edits made by one editor on an IPv6 range, based upon a single address. I am aware that a single IPv6 address in 'View History' might only show just one edit, whereas across that range that single editor might well have made far more contributions. So what do should I do to view all their edits? I was prompted to ask this after trying to understand some of the concerns about 'only warning' notices made by an editor currently at RfA. My inability to know how to investigate the behaviour of warned editors makes me feel quite impotent. Any guidance you can offer me will be much appreciated. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 23:33, 8 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

If you go to the contributions page for an IPv6 and and type /64 onto the end of it, and then hit enter, it’ll bring up all contributions for a range. TonyBallioni (talk) 23:35, 8 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Ah - as simple as that! OK, I'll give it a try. Thanks. (Wanders off, feeling rather stupid...) Nick Moyes (talk) 09:00, 9 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

mw:Help:Range blocks/IPv6

I've improved mw:Help:Range blocks/IPv6 and hopefully it is now a little clearer. I have also linked to this page from there as this should also help people. --Jules (Mrjulesd) 01:33, 9 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

twinkle

A checkbox option now comes up in Twinkle to allow this (actually it encourages it: It's usually fine, if not better, to just block the /64 range and then a checkbox labeled "Block the /64 instead?")

I've read the essay. I understand that the one thing to check for is whether there are other good contributions, indicating it's being used by productive editors, in which case take it to a checkuser. I guess with this I actually may do it. :) —valereee (talk) 12:03, 10 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

TonyBallioni Just wanted to stop by and say that the option to block the /64 in Twinkle can now be checked by default by updating Twinkle preferences. (You may be aware of this already but just in case if not). Spencer^T•C 19:47, 13 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Can you please categorize this page in Category:Wikipedia blocking?

Thanks. Apokrif (talk) 02:25, 1 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]