No open proxies

←Policies and guidelines

No open proxies

This page provides information about the blocking of open proxies on Meta and all other Wikimedia projects. Projects may have local policies which go beyond this global policy. It was discussed in February 2004, and the policy page was created in March 2006. (If you have been blocked as an open proxy, please see Help:blocked.) This page refers to the Meta project, but applies to all projects. Listen to this text (1.48 MB, help | download or online player | file info) (older version)

Policy

Open or anonymising proxies may be blocked for any period at any time. While this may affect legitimate users, they are not the intended targets and may freely use proxies until those are blocked. No restrictions are placed on reading Meta through an open or anonymous proxy.

Proxies are left open due to deliberate or inadvertent configuration or because hackers have changed the configuration. Non-static IP addresses or hosts that are otherwise not permanent proxies should typically be blocked for a shorter period of time, as it is likely the IP address will eventually be transferred or dynamically reassigned, or the open proxy closed. Once closed, the IP address should be unblocked.

Exceptions

Editors can be permitted to edit by way of an open proxy with the IP block exemptions flag. This is granted on local projects by administrators. Historically, administrators would "softblock" IP's allowing named editors to continue to edit, while disallowing anonymous editing and user registrations. With this flag, this is no longer required.

Projects with policy permitting exemptions are listed as examples here:

• English Wikipedia IP block exemption policy

However, many users are known to access through open proxy unknowingly due to the default setting of their browser. Before you apply the IP block exemption (which may take time and not guarantee to be granted), you should check the internet connection preference of your browser and change it to no proxy access.

Rationale

Although Meta encourages anyone in the world to contribute, such proxies are often exploited for abusive purposes. Because MediaWiki (the wiki software) depends on IP addresses for administrator intervention against abuse, open proxies allow users to completely circumvent administrators. The use of scripts or bots allow malicious users to rapidly rotate IP addresses, causing continuous disruption that cannot be stopped by helpless administrators. Several such attacks have occurred on Wikimedia projects, causing heavy disruption and occupying administrators who would otherwise deal with other concerns.

This policy is known to cause difficulty for some editors, who must use open proxies to circumvent censorship where they live; a well-known example is the government of the People's Republic of China, which sporadically attempts to prevent the people in China from reading or editing Wikipedia. Readers in China who wish to edit Meta should read advice to users using anonymizing proxies to bypass the Great Firewall.

See also

• WikiProject on open proxies
• Editing with Tor

• Original discussion
  • WikiEn-l: "Anonymous proxies (was Re: Desysop Morwen)", Tim Starling on 15 February 2004
  • WikiEn-l: "Anonymous proxies (was Re: Desysop Morwen)", Jimmy Wales on 16 February 2004
  • WikiEn-l: "Anonymous proxies (was Re: Desysop Morwen)", Jimmy Wales on 16 February 2004