No open proxies

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No open proxies

This page provides information about prohibition on open proxies on Meta and other Wikimedia projects. It was discussed in February 2004, and this page was created in March 2006.

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Open or anonymous proxies are banned from editing Wikimedia projects and may be blocked. Although Meta encourages anyone in the world to contribute, such proxies are often used abusively. If you have been blocked as an open proxy, please see Help:blocked. Proxies are left open due to deliberate or inadvertent configuration or because hackers have changed the configuration. No restrictions are placed on reading Meta through an open or anonymous proxy.

Anonymizers and other companies or organizations that offer open proxies may be blocked indefinitely by an administrator. Non-static IPs or hosts that are otherwise not permanent proxies typically warrant blocking for a shorter period of time, as the IP is likely to be transferred, the open proxy is likely to be closed, or the IP is likely to be re-assigned dynamically.

Once "closed", the IP address should be unblocked. Meta administrators and editors frequently check IP addresses from which vandalism originates, to see if they might be proxies. There is also a Meta project, the WikiProject on open proxies, which seeks to identify and block open proxy servers.

This policy is known to cause hardship to 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 attempts to prevent its citizens from reading or editing Wikipedia. Chinese readers who wish to edit Meta should read Wikipedia:Advice to users using Tor to bypass the Great Firewall.

See also

• WikiProject on open proxies
• m:Editing with Tor

External Links

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