Change the ''Revertpage''-type messages

Change the ''Revertpage''-type messages

At the moment, if the edit is rolled back, the description contains a link to the member's page, which is not applicable to the edits of anonymous users. I ask to replace all links to the user page in these posts with links to the contribution page. MediaWiki:Revertpage-anon/en MediaWiki:Revertpage-nouser/en MediaWiki:Revertpage/en

Ivan-r (talk)20:07, 16 February 2021

An "anonymous" user *has* a user page: it is bound to its IP (so it's not really anonymous, just not associated to a account as the user was just not connected).

In this case, the link goes to a "User:IP address" page (works for IPv4 addresses in dotted decimal format, and IPv6 addresses in hexadecimal with colon-separated groups), which also has a "User talk:IP address". Such links will still be useful for other users to see what that user (or groups of users) did, to take action where needed (if this is a VPN or open proxy, the IP or a range of IP may be blocked, without affecting the possibility of users to logon if they suffer it and are not related to the issue caused by some other people using the same VPN or proxy or public Wifi hotspot, at the same time or in the past or future).

You should be aware that editing any wiki without being logged in with a user account is a privacy issue as the IP will becomely publicly visible and associated with their access time and topics of interests and their own statements/opinions in talk pages. Most wikis detail this. Some wikis do not allow any IP user and require all their users to be logged in to modify anything, even if they permit a readonly access (which may remain publicly anonymous only in this case). Make a single edit while you are not logged in, and login later while doing the same similar actions will let anyone know who you are and will damage the privacvy of your user account. The same can happen if you loose the connection for any reason and continue editing while being known only by your IP.

Note also that strict anonymity does not exist or is not even legal in almost all countries! the site must keep an access log of IP+time for authorities, and archive those logs for some months or years (depending on the country where the site is hosted and legally registered). Such logs however are frequently parsed and used by sites (including by Wikimedia, for a few admins that have the "IPcheck users" and that are in contract with the Foundation to avoid disclising any information that is not strictly bound to the resolution of a legal or community-rule violation.

To enforce the legal restriction, many site will restrict access rights to IP-only users (notably those using an IP used by a anonymizing proxy or VPN, or a Tor exit node): users MUST then logon to avoid this issue.

As well users may have several accounts with distinct identities even if they run them in the same IP. As well there may be multiple users on the same shared IP (in the same company or school for example, or those using a public Wifi hotspot like a restaurant): here again, users are strongly encouraged to logon with their own account, ans so their IP will no longer be exposed in their edits.

Verdy p (talk)21:12, 16 February 2021

It's all empty water which is not related to the query.

Ivan-r (talk)18:19, 18 February 2021