No open proxies
Users are prohibited from editing Wikimedia projects through open or anonymous proxies. Although the Wikimedia Foundation 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.
Any IP address which is an open proxy may be indefinitely blocked by any administrator at any time. Once "closed", the IP address should be unblocked. Meta administrators 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 Tor users in China.
See also
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