Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-05-07/Admins desysopped

TOR

Probably should mention that Jayg is cracking down on TOR nodes because of this; previously most of them were being softblocked, but he's hardblocking all of them. --Gwern (contribs) 03:32 8 May 2007 (GMT)

Maybe. On the other hand admin accounts are not subject to IP blocks, so can't someone use tor with an admin account? Thatcher131 03:36, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

I don't know. That sounds about right, but I don't know for sure. On the other hand, if that is true, that would suggest the hardblocks are even more pointless than I've been saying to Jayg. --Gwern (contribs) 04:23 8 May 2007 (GMT)

I think this would be good for an article next week after some time to digest. There are a lot of people who favor hard blocks for a number of reasons. Probably should not be shoehorned here at last minute. Thatcher131 03:40, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

It's no less last minute than the rest of the stuff, I'd say. But I do have an ulterior motive in suggesting it, as I've learned that you need to jump on these things early before 'consensus' and inertia build up. --Gwern (contribs) 04:23 8 May 2007 (GMT)

That's a big mistake. Tor is a necessity in places where Wikipedia is blocked. Blocking all tor access effectively prohibits a billion or so people from editing/reading the site. — BRIAN0918 • 2007-05-09 15:39Z

"My password is password!"

I was lucky enough to see the first incident (the User:AndyZ one) in progress, and saw that fateful edit summary shortly after creation. I naturally thought "Ah. A compromised account is running wild; and the hacker has set the password so anybody can join in. I wonder how many will?"

Obviously there's a lot of evidence that User:BuickCenturyDriver did just that. But how many others did? I would imagine lots of others, no? During the minutes between "My password is password!" and the point where User:Mark took control of the account, how many IP addresses all over the place logged on? This seems like a prime bit of news for the newspaper! Inquiring minds want to know. Doops | talk 00:36, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

As far as I know from the checkuser evidence that has been described, BuickCentury was the only cat killed by curiosity. All the rest of the IP evidence points to one cracker behind all the attacks. Jiang's password was not revealed until later, by him, and Marine and Conscious' passwords have never beeb revealed. Thatcher131 03:13, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

That's amazing. You'd think there'd be handfuls! How soon did Mark change the password? Doops | talk 03:39, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

I don't know. It could have been any time after the account was blocked and desysopped. Incidentally, I will be writing a followup article for next week to cover developements after this issue was finalized. Thatcher131 03:44, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

It took about a minute after I saw that to log out, log in and change the password. Apparently as soon as a password is changed, it logs out all other computers logged in on that account. Luckily it seems nobody got around to do any damage beyond what has been described. Chances are, not a whole lot of passing randoms know how to get to the deletion log to find out the deletion summary. - Mark 06:05, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

AndyZ has since been unblocked. This should be reflected in the Signpost article. I would change it, but I am generally quite awful at wording things like that. --Dreaded Walrus ^t _c 13:10, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

Oh, wait. I should have read the full thing before posting here. I just saw the "as of this writing" bit and jumped straight in here. --Dreaded Walrus ^{t c} 13:20, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

Dire warnings in Wikipedia:Administrators no longer current

I wrote that text on Wikipedia:Administrators thinking it was the way things would go. Then Brion did something different. I've reworded the text accordingly - David Gerard 11:56, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

This is my first Signpost article so I don't know if its supposed to be like a newspaper that doesn't change once its printed or whether it should be updated, and for how long after publication. I'll look at WP:Admins and think about toning down the article. Thatcher131 12:23, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

Signpost articles are more like newspaper articles than mainstream wiki articles - they are rarely edited to reflect developments of substance after the date of publication (although minor amendments are often made - this is a wiki, after all). -- ALoan (Talk) 10:14, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

BuickCenteryDriver

The part on him is inaccurate since he was now unblocked after an apology and the AFG of 4 admins. Sodaplayer ^{talk contrib ^_^} 22:40, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

There will be a followup story next week, this is more like a newspaper and at the time it was written he was blocked. Thatcher131 22:42, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

A useful userbox

This user has a
Strong Password. ^†

--One Salient Oversight 07:56, 12 May 2007 (UTC)