This is an
essay on attitudes to
unregistered users. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of
Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been
thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
This page in a nutshell: Unregistered users can edit articles and participate on talk pages in the same way as registered users. Their input is just as important in building consensus. |
Many users believe that unregistered users' sole contributions to Wikipedia are to cause disruption to articles and that they have fewer rights as editors compared with registered users. Studies in 2004 and 2007 found that although most vandalism (80%) is generated by IP editors, over 80% of edits by unregistered users were not vandalism. [1] As current policy stands, unregistered users have the same rights as registered users to participate in the writing of Wikipedia.
Because of these misconceptions, edits by unregistered users may be mistakenly reverted and their contributions to talk pages discounted. This practice is against the philosophy of Wikipedia and founding principles of all Wikimedia projects. When dealing with unregistered contributors, the rule to remember is: IPs are human too.
You are an IP too. See here if you don't think so. The only difference between you and an IP contributor is that your IP address is hidden. When you registered for Wikipedia, you hid your IP address behind a username. While unregistered users were often called anonymous editors, [2] in fact, because your IP address is hidden, it is you who is more anonymous. (Your IP address is still recorded by the software. It is simply not visible to most users.)
Remember this when dealing with unregistered users. They are not a lower category of users. They are not a special subset that we tolerate. They are not locust swarms intent on destroying your article. They are individuals, the same as you. Why does it matter that they have not registered for an account? Just as you deserve to be treated with civility and good faith, the edits of unregistered users deserve civility and good faith from you. As your contributions to talk pages deserve to be heard and counted when forming consensus, so too do the contributions of unregistered users.
Our readers are IPs too. Virtually none of our readers are registered users. When an unregistered user makes an edit to an article or posts a comment on a talk page, these are the views of one of our readers. That doesn't necessarily mean that their view should be given greater weight; it simply means that we should not discriminate against their view just because they don't have an account. Many IPs add quality edits to Wikipedia.
Many users believe that policies and guidelines only apply to registered users. Not so. Policies and guidelines affect all users, registered and unregistered, equally.
As a general rule, unregistered users can do everything that registered users can. Unregistered users may edit articles, participate in talk page discussions, contribute to policy proposals and do (almost) everything else that a registered user can do. There are some specific restrictions on what unregistered editors can directly do without the assistance of an admin or a registered-and-autoconfirmed editor.
In addition to these restrictions, there are some specific advantages to becoming a registered user, such as watchlists. There are also some other, lesser used, limitations placed on newly-registered users that consequently affect unregistered users.
This is an
essay on attitudes to
unregistered users. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of
Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been
thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
This page in a nutshell: Unregistered users can edit articles and participate on talk pages in the same way as registered users. Their input is just as important in building consensus. |
Many users believe that unregistered users' sole contributions to Wikipedia are to cause disruption to articles and that they have fewer rights as editors compared with registered users. Studies in 2004 and 2007 found that although most vandalism (80%) is generated by IP editors, over 80% of edits by unregistered users were not vandalism. [1] As current policy stands, unregistered users have the same rights as registered users to participate in the writing of Wikipedia.
Because of these misconceptions, edits by unregistered users may be mistakenly reverted and their contributions to talk pages discounted. This practice is against the philosophy of Wikipedia and founding principles of all Wikimedia projects. When dealing with unregistered contributors, the rule to remember is: IPs are human too.
You are an IP too. See here if you don't think so. The only difference between you and an IP contributor is that your IP address is hidden. When you registered for Wikipedia, you hid your IP address behind a username. While unregistered users were often called anonymous editors, [2] in fact, because your IP address is hidden, it is you who is more anonymous. (Your IP address is still recorded by the software. It is simply not visible to most users.)
Remember this when dealing with unregistered users. They are not a lower category of users. They are not a special subset that we tolerate. They are not locust swarms intent on destroying your article. They are individuals, the same as you. Why does it matter that they have not registered for an account? Just as you deserve to be treated with civility and good faith, the edits of unregistered users deserve civility and good faith from you. As your contributions to talk pages deserve to be heard and counted when forming consensus, so too do the contributions of unregistered users.
Our readers are IPs too. Virtually none of our readers are registered users. When an unregistered user makes an edit to an article or posts a comment on a talk page, these are the views of one of our readers. That doesn't necessarily mean that their view should be given greater weight; it simply means that we should not discriminate against their view just because they don't have an account. Many IPs add quality edits to Wikipedia.
Many users believe that policies and guidelines only apply to registered users. Not so. Policies and guidelines affect all users, registered and unregistered, equally.
As a general rule, unregistered users can do everything that registered users can. Unregistered users may edit articles, participate in talk page discussions, contribute to policy proposals and do (almost) everything else that a registered user can do. There are some specific restrictions on what unregistered editors can directly do without the assistance of an admin or a registered-and-autoconfirmed editor.
In addition to these restrictions, there are some specific advantages to becoming a registered user, such as watchlists. There are also some other, lesser used, limitations placed on newly-registered users that consequently affect unregistered users.