Hi @[[User:Yamla|Yamla]]. Thank you for your assistance on my behalf. Regarding your admonition to not request checkuser lookups for fishing, I understand that point in general, but how does the community enforce the rule against sockpuppetry in the situation where an editor may have logged out, created a new username for onetime use (or one article/one talkpage use), and doesn’t have their IP address looked up even if circumstantial evidence indicates significant knowledge of how to interact in Wikipedia not consistent with being a first-time editor? In this particular case, [[WP:ECR]] perhaps proves useful with regard to this new username, but it won’t reach any underlying account. In other words, how is there ever a way to determine a sockmaster when such a technique is used? Or is this simply a hole in the rule against sockpuppetry? Thanks again. [[User:Coining|Coining]] ([[User talk:Coining|talk]]) 14:35, 4 November 2025 (UTC)
Hi @[[User:Yamla|Yamla]]. Thank you for your assistance on my behalf. Regarding your admonition to not request checkuser lookups for fishing, I understand that point in general, but how does the community enforce the rule against sockpuppetry in the situation where an editor may have logged out, created a new username for onetime use (or one article/one talkpage use), and doesn’t have their IP address looked up even if circumstantial evidence indicates significant knowledge of how to interact in Wikipedia not consistent with being a first-time editor? In this particular case, [[WP:ECR]] perhaps proves useful with regard to this new username, but it won’t reach any underlying account. In other words, how is there ever a way to determine a sockmaster when such a technique is used? Or is this simply a hole in the rule against sockpuppetry? Thanks again. [[User:Coining|Coining]] ([[User talk:Coining|talk]]) 14:35, 4 November 2025 (UTC)
:[[WP:SOCK]] doesn’t require [[WP:CHECKUSER]] verification. There’s also [[WP:PROJSOCK]] and, as you mention, [[WP:ECR]]. Let’s say someone is editing [[Ice cream]], an article not subject to any [[WP:ECR]] restrictions. For some reason, they sign out of their account, create a new account, and then raise a concern on that article’s talk page. That’d be a violation of [[WP:SOCK]], but it’s pretty unlikely we’d catch them. On the other hand, a user is engaged in a heated discussion on [[Talk:Ice cream]]. Everyone is against them. They create a new account, sign in, and support their other account on that talk page. Now, we’d have a specific suspected sockmaster account and [[WP:CHECKUSER]] could be used. Even here, though, it probably wouldn’t; [[WP:DUCK]] is sufficient. My goal here is only to provide general guidance on these points; as always, there are going to be exceptions. 🙂 –[[User:Yamla|Yamla]] ([[User talk:Yamla#top|talk]]) 14:42, 4 November 2025 (UTC)
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Yamla will be away on vacation from 20251115 to 20251126 and may not respond swiftly to queries. |  |
Piotr Kamler page
Hi, Yamla. I just created a stub for Polish film director Piotr Kamler. The page name came with a warning that another page under that name had been removed by you in 2015 because it was created by a banned user in 2015. I couldn’t find a reference to it in your logs so I proceeded, but thought it best to check and see if there is any issue I am missing. I believe my stub is all original content. Wrightjack talk
I’m sorry, I screwed this up, I forgot to add CU yes on my report and I ended up creating two separate reports. [1] [2] Can you please merge/fix it? —Griboski (talk) 17:18, 27 October 2025 (UTC)
Hello, Yamla. This message is being sent to remind you of significant upcoming changes regarding logged-out editing.
Starting 4 November, logged-out editors will no longer have their IP address publicly displayed. Instead, they will have a temporary account (TA) associated with their edits. Users with some extended rights like administrators and CheckUsers, as well as users with the temporary account IP viewer (TAIV) user right will still be able to reveal temporary users’ IP addresses and all contributions made by temporary accounts from a specific IP address or range.
How do temporary accounts work?
- When a logged-out user completes an edit or a logged action for the first time, a cookie will be set in this user’s browser and a temporary account tied with this cookie will be automatically created for them. This account’s name will follow the pattern:
~2025-12345-67(a tilde, year of creation, a number split into units of 5). - All subsequent actions by the temporary account user will be attributed to this username. The cookie will expire 90 days after its creation. As long as it exists, all edits made from this device will be attributed to this temporary account. It will be the same account even if the IP address changes, unless the user clears their cookies or uses a different device or web browser.
- A record of the IP address used at the time of each edit will be stored for 90 days after the edit. Users with the temporary account IP viewer (TAIV) user right will be able to see the underlying IP addresses.
- As a measure against vandalism, there are two limitations on the creation of temporary accounts:
- There has to be a minimum of 10 minutes between subsequent temporary account creations from the same IP (or /64 range in case of IPv6).
- There can be a maximum of 6 temporary accounts created from an IP (or /64 range) within a period of 24 hours.
Temporary account IP viewer user right
Impact for administrators
- It will be possible to block many abusers by just blocking their temporary accounts. A blocked person won’t be able to create new temporary accounts quickly if the admin selects the autoblock option.
- It will still be possible to block an IP address or IP range.
- Temporary accounts will not be retroactively applied to contributions made before the deployment. On Special:Contributions, you will be able to see existing IP user contributions, but not new contributions made by temporary accounts on that IP address. Instead, you should use Special:IPContributions for this (see a video about IPContributions in a gallery below).
Rules about IP information disclosure
- Publicizing an IP address gained through TAIV access is generally not allowed (e.g. ~2025-12345-67 previously edited as 192.0.2.1 or ~2025-12345-67’s IP address is 192.0.2.1).
- Publicly linking a TA to another TA is allowed if “reasonably believed to be necessary”. (e.g.
~2025-12345-67 and ~2025-12345-68 are likely the same person, so I am counting their reverts together toward 3RR
, but not Hey ~2025-12345-68, you did some good editing as ~2025-12345-67) - See Wikipedia:Temporary account IP viewer § What can and can’t be said for more detailed guidelines.
Useful tools for patrollers
- It is possible to view if a user has opted-in to view temporary account IPs via the User Info card, available in Preferences → Appearance → Advanced options →
Enable the user info card
- This feature also makes it possible for anyone to see the approximate count of temporary accounts active on the same IP address range.
- Special:IPContributions allows viewing all edits and temporary accounts connected to a specific IP address or IP range.
- Similarly, Special:GlobalContributions supports global search for a given temporary account’s activity.
- The auto-reveal feature (see video below) allows users with the right permissions to automatically reveal all IP addresses for a limited time window.
Videos
Further information and discussion
Most of this message was written by Mz7 (source). Thanks, 🎃 SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 02:48, 31 October 2025 (UTC)
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The Admin’s Barnstar |
| Thank you so much for your excellent administrative work on Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia over the years! You review so many unblock requests, almost every one is reviewed by you, even though you get very little appreciation, love, and recognition. You deserve this Wiki Love! Best Regards, ~Rafael (He, him) • talk • guestbook • projects 02:47, 1 November 2025 (UTC) |
Hi Yamla! Happy to chat with you. May I ask if I commit vandalism for only once then I get blocked, should I email to you? I heard from my friend that he got blocked from Wikipedia after 2 times of vandalism. Kitasenkyu2000 (talk) 02:58, 3 November 2025 (UTC)
- No, emailing me would be inappropriate. WP:GAB explains how to contest a block. —Yamla (talk) 11:12, 3 November 2025 (UTC)
- Your original block just became a community ban due to WP:3X. —Yamla (talk) 11:20, 3 November 2025 (UTC)
Hi @Yamla. Thank you for your assistance on my behalf. Regarding your admonition to not request checkuser lookups for fishing, I understand that point in general, but how does the community enforce the rule against sockpuppetry in the situation where an editor may have logged out, created a new username for onetime use (or one article/one talkpage use), and doesn’t have their IP address looked up even if circumstantial evidence indicates significant knowledge of how to interact in Wikipedia not consistent with being a first-time editor? In this particular case, WP:ECR perhaps proves useful with regard to this new username, but it won’t reach any underlying account. In other words, how is there ever a way to determine a sockmaster when such a technique is used? Or is this simply a hole in the rule against sockpuppetry? Thanks again. Coining (talk) 14:35, 4 November 2025 (UTC)
- WP:SOCK doesn’t require WP:CHECKUSER verification. There’s also WP:PROJSOCK and, as you mention, WP:ECR. Let’s say someone is editing Ice cream, an article not subject to any WP:ECR restrictions. For some reason, they sign out of their account, create a new account, and then raise a concern on that article’s talk page. That’d be a violation of WP:SOCK, but it’s pretty unlikely we’d catch them. On the other hand, a user is engaged in a heated discussion on Talk:Ice cream. Everyone is against them. They create a new account, sign in, and support their other account on that talk page. Now, we’d have a specific suspected sockmaster account and WP:CHECKUSER could be used. Even here, though, it probably wouldn’t; WP:DUCK is sufficient. My goal here is only to provide general guidance on these points; as always, there are going to be exceptions. 🙂 —Yamla (talk) 14:42, 4 November 2025 (UTC)
