User talk:PanicMonster

Your email

Hello. You emailed me about having trouble creating an account on English Wikipedia. The problem is that account creation is disabled for a portion of customers on your internet provider. There was too much disruption coming from it. You can request an account be created by following the steps in en:Wikipedia:Why create an account?. Specifically, you need to go to this page and fill out the form. The range block does not affect logged-in editors, but it does prevent account creation. So, once your account is created, it will no longer affect you; however, someone else must create the account for you. NinjaRobotPirate (talk) 10:12, 27 January 2018 (UTC)

Sorry, I was vague in my original e-mail to you. What I meant when I said "when I attempt to create an account..." is that when I use the create account link referenced above (or the one listed in the original error message), I receive another error saying the account already exists. For reference, that error message says: "I'm sorry, but the username you selected is already taken. Please try another. Please note that Wikipedia automatically capitalizes the first letter of any user name, therefore User:example would become User:Example."

No one already has my user name of Wikipedia, so the discordance between unified/global account and Wikipedia-specific account is not a problem (i.e.: en:Help:Unified_login#Someone_is_using_my_name_on_another_wiki._How_can_I_get_that_account?).

Again the original error message I see when first attempting login relates to autocreation. Yet, I cannot even use the request account creation form. I suspect I'm stuck in this loop because my global account has been allocated on Wikipedia, but I cannot login in for the first time. Following the instructions on any account creation page I've seen are of no help. The only suggestion I've run across is to contact the user who initiated the block (you). Maybe I'm missing something? Thank you for your continued attention to this issue.

You could probably come up with a different username and use the form without any problems. If it you're truly attached to this name, you can usurp it after creating the other name. There are two other options that seem to rest on me. I could change the range block so that account creation is allowed (which I'm not entirely sure I want to do), or I could manually create User:PanicMonster for you. Before I bypassed all the bureaucracy in your favor, I think I'd want to know what kinds of articles do you intend to edit. NinjaRobotPirate (talk) 03:42, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

I think this is a systems issue. I appreciate the vigor in which you (and others) protect the integrity of information. However, a carpet-bomb approach (i.e.: range blocking) does have it's side effects. The secondary account creation and usurping process seems like adding in even more unnecessary steps.

Regardless, I happen to be away from home, and I was able to log in to Wikipedia.org using my global account credentials without issue (ironically from an anonymous free public WiFi IP). After remoting into my home computer, I was also able to verify my ability to log in there too. It seems the IP block was indeed only affecting the account autocreation.

Although my individual problem has been resolved, I'm still curious as to why a range block couldn't be temporarily lifted for a legitimate reason. I'm also curious about how this whole debacle can be avoided in the future; I surely can't be the only one with this problem. Does it really matter what kinds of articles a person wants to edit? Or should the emphasis be on the barriers that prevent willing, interested persons from contributing to free knowledge?

Wikipedia has become very bureaucratic, it's true. Part of it is a reaction to increased vandalism and disruption, which one might uncharitably call a siege mentality. One's views on this are probably colored by whether 1) you're unjustly range blocked, 2) you have just spent hours cleaning up disruption from yet another sock puppet, or 3) you're a completely disinterested observer. NinjaRobotPirate (talk) 06:57, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

Fair points. To follow up, I intend to edit medically-related material. My interest in contributing was spurred by this page, and so many others like it I've seen over the years. Thank you for your willingness to help. I'm glad I was able to find an easy work-around, thus avoiding the bureaucracy.