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Rather than creating a subpage for each user stating the IP addresses he/she use, it seems to make more sense to list them together on a page instead? Even then, I am not too sure whether it is a good thing - I think we should let the respective users make their own decisions.
I agree. I think it is a strange concept. Anonymity is an option. There are a lot of people that do not sign in, but do sign their contributions (eg: Bill, Robert Jasiek). If someone does not want to sign, that's their choice.
I sometimes get logged out too, or forget to log in when working from another computer. I then choose to sign my posts.
I added the subpage to velobici mainly to show how absurd the concept is, not because I support having that kind of subpage.
Also, ip addresses change, they are not a reliable way to identify a user.
Unkx80, we do let users make their own decisions about whether or not to login. Some time ago, JohnF edited a page (don't remember which) regarding an item in Japanese(?) over which folks were having a heated discussion. Once, it was understood that John had not logged in but rather his edits were recorded as an anonymous IP address, people stopped the heated discussion and accepted John's expertise regarding Japanese language. John's reputation was an important item in this regard.
In the recent SOS exchanges, its useful to know who is making which statements. The method we rely upon at Sensei's Library, and many other sites, is the combination of username and password. Once authenticated, edits are recorded using that username. The tagline that many attach to their edits (see example) below is a courtesy but is unauthenticated.
So did Bass write the example line below? How do you know one way or another? Does that determination still hold true if the edit was made from IP address: 82.203.162.177?
Bass: Bass wrote this.
I implicitly trust people to be honest on Sensei's. If someone really starts making strange or abusive comments anonymously while signing them in someone elses name, we can always ask librarians to intervene.
Bill: The reason that I have not been logging in is that I got a new computer and have no user cookie on the new machine. However, I do not have a single IP address, anyway, so you could not use that for identification.
But the ease of editing depends upon trust, in any event. Occasionally I have had my signed material edited as to content, distorting what I meant to say. Yes, the changes may be in the page history, but you have to trust users to avoid that kind of edit.
Sub-pages have been removed. Let's concentrate on something else.
FYI, librarians do have the means to find out the IPs of the users who contributed while logged in. While not entirely foolproof, this mechanism allows us some form of checking.
There is also a bug in sensei's that sometimes reveals that information to normal users as well. I have reported it to Arno.