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April 9

Temporary removal of IP ban for Edit-a-Thon?

Hello, I'm a librarian at San Diego Public Library. I ran an edit-a-thon a few weeks ago, and while we only got a few people, it was well-liked. We had one major hiccup: Our patron computer IPs and even our data-based IPs have been blocked from making new accounts for three major reasons: We use UC San Diego internet, we have a high school on two of our floors, and being a central downtown library, we have some very creative patrons who have their own struggles to contend with. I've been struggling to find solutions to this, as requiring participants to create an account off-site is not only a barrier to attendance and access, but unlikely to be done, leading to frustration upon arriving. In addition, if I applied for a blanket unbanning, I cannot guarantee delinquent behavior wouldn't happen again. Our wifi hotspots use the same blocked network and VPNs are too expensive. (And might get kind of close to ban evasion, though from the policy I've read it seems it isn't ban evasion as long as you specifically weren't banned?) So, with two potential solutions left, I want to know if it's possible to request temporary unbanning for the library IPs. Ideally just a 10 hour window where the library IP isn't from making new accounts. Would a request like this be feasible? If so, what page would I use to do this? It was suggested to me as well that I try and get IT involved as an IRT, but that is unlikely to happen at this time. The program just isn't a priority for other departments, which is fair. Thank you for any other advice you can give. --SDPLPauline (talk) 17:16, 9 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Assuming this ban was initiated at WP:ANI, you might need to move this request to that page. --←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:56, 9 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

You should take a look at Wikipedia:How to run an edit-a-thon - in particular the part about account creation limits, and how to work with an event coordinator to avoid such problems for your editathon. -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 22:01, 9 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

(modified after EC) @SDPLPauline: just to clarify, the best place to ask for such an unblock would be WP:AN (not ANI). It doesn't really matter who or where the block was initiated or discussed, for something like this it's better to just ask at AN. You could notify the blocking admin if you know who it is but frankly that's probably not necessary, someone else will notify them if they feel their feedback might be helpful.

As Finlay McWalter has indicated even if the block is lifted, you may still run into problems especially with the 6 account a day per IP limit depending on your library's network management policies and the number of participants. Generally you want an event coordinator who can create the accounts without running into such limits. The event coordinator permission also an editor to confirm accounts so new editors can directly create articles, upload images and skip CAPTCHA checking when adding links without waiting 4 days. The latter may be especially important if you have attendees who are visually impaired as unfortunately we still have no solution for them last time I checked.

However the event coordinator permission is generally only granted to editors with sufficient editing experience so you'll likely need someone involved who has that experience. This experience is important since for example new editors directly creating articles can often end up a bad experience for everyone involved, and uploading images often goes badly if the editor involved is uploading images they didn't create without understanding our copyright policy. Experienced editors can hopefully provide the guidance to avoid such things.

BTW, if you have future questions like this it's probably better to start at WP:Teahouse or WP:Help Desk not here. The reference desk is intended for general knowledge questions rather than for getting help with Wikipedia.

Nil Einne (talk) 22:26, 9 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks so much for your responses. I actually did work with a local coordinator who could make accounts specifically to try and avoid the 6 account limit, so please don't worry, I did my homework in that regard. Despite their privileges, even with his permissions, we couldn't bypass the blanket ip ban to create new accounts (And I'm talking about any accounts at all, not just 6+). My apologies on getting the wrong help desk. I'd been debating which "help" platform to use and figured I'd go for the more generalized one, just in case. I'll go post over on AN.--SDPLPauline (talk) 23:20, 9 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]