So what's so wrong with restricting edits to registered members again?
 

It's not so bad when they do neutral or GOOD edits. But when they do borderline STUPID edits, it becomes annoying. Vandalism or spamming is easy. You just ban the IP address. Sure they can always attack again, but at least they did something to warrant action.

I am sure everyone has had pages tweaked, but in a STUPID way, by anonymous users who don't bother to (a) learn the protocol of this site and (b) bother to follow the formatting standards of this site or (c) just don't know how to spell......

So I propose restricting edits to registered users. If anyone has a compelling argument that people, who are too lazy to create a userid, should have the same power as everyone else, please, have at it.....

Pretty much all of my pages are restricted to registered users.

Recalling the older topics, I don't think anyone ever did present much argument against it.

I agree in full. I had to go back through my In the Line of Fire page yesterday and undo a bunch of edits because the comments weren't funny, spelled properly, or neccessary to the page at all. And of course it was an anonymous user who made these edits.

And sometimes, when it comes to spelling, I'm in awe at how bad some people get.

The thing is, registered users can be just as inept when it comes to spelling and learning protocol. Though admittedly, anonymous users tend to be worse. If you guys want to suggest that we restrict editing to anonymous users, then let's all ask Bunni if we can (since I don't think any of us admins have the privilege). If all of you guys want it to be done, then I'll go with popular sentiment on this.

But I'm still skeptical we should really do it. One thing to keep in mind is that the anonymous users most frequently target our biggest and most popular pages, the ones that we put lots of effort into. The solution is simple: Get into the habit of protecting your pages. Every page on which I've ever done extensive work has been protected. That usually takes care of the problem by itself. Whereas punishing all anonymous users just seems kind of unnecessary (not to mention, too collectivist for my tastes, and I hate collectivism).

Plus, I worry that it just makes us look like assholes. I don't post on too many Wikis besides this one, but I haven't run into any yet that restrict themselves to registered users only.

I can protect my pages?

well from mystery guys that pop in and not register themselves. You just click on the protect button at the top of a page and then select the protect against unregistered and you're done, but it doesnt stop ppl from registering and messing around

Minor correction: you can do that if you're an admin. Regular users can't edit-protect pages.

never mind then. I guess i'll start clicking protect on every page

Of course, as MT2008 pointed out, that doesn't protect pages from jerks who REGISTER as users and become major pains in the ass......