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[Sasha Ehrenstein]

I've been using an extension with Sturmkrieg that I think could be very useful here.  ConfirmAccount, which allows authorized users to approve accounts before they are created.  It can be customoized, such as I have done with the account creation (request) form at Sturmkrieg (en.sturmkrieg.com) to be very minimal for farmer wikis that don't need much information from users.  Wiki owners that want more information from new users can use MediaWiki pages to request additional information on the form.

I strongly recommend that this extension be added, because it is very important for preventing account creation by spammers and vandals.  I've seen several occasions on this forum where sysops have complained about mass spammer account creation, sometimes many per day.  It is also extremely important in the event of attacks similar to the ones that Sturmkrieg encountered.  A few months ago, we were attacked by a troll who spammed offensive material on various pages, including the personal information of one of my sysops who he thought was me.  It was so bad that I had to close account creation for several days, only to have him come back and continue, literally creating 20 something accounts in around half an hour when I got on and started banning him at the same time as he was vandalizing.  If this had happened while I was still using Wikkii, I would have had to shut down all editing completely, to prevent him from attacking the site, and who knows how long it would have had to stay closed.

I hope that this extension will be added for the benefit of all Wikkii users.

I also recommend that a new user group (Gatekeepers, for example?) be created for approving accounts, rather than just giving an existing group the privledge so that users with special training can take the job and users who are not ready to be Beaurucrats can still take the job.

[Wikkii]

Thank you for the suggestion, and sorry to hear about your trolling issues.

Glad you got it sorted it though.

[Sasha Ehrenstein]

Thanks.  I hope you add it.  It will also be very good for reducing spam, since administrators would have the option of requiring new users to write something about their interest in the subject to prove they aren't a spammer.

There's also a lot of customizability with the extension, and so you could require only a few fields for the benefit of most wikis.

[DskaggsGV]

This would be really helpful because alot of people have trolled on my last site

[Sasha Ehrenstein]

The way to make it most suitable for farmer wikis would probably be to have a minimal set up with it; having only a few fields to fill out.  Also, MediaWiki pages could be used to make it sort of like the one that I have, so users would see it more as a creation rather than a request, which might be slightly better.  Wiki admins could also customize the system message pages to ask for different information in the user biography.  Some admins could require very little information and others of more reliable websites could require more.

[WikiDude]

This would be very useful but might also be annoying

[Sasha Ehrenstein]

It would really only be annoying if the admins didn't approve new accounts.  However, it does notify you as soon as a new user confirms their email address.  Any wiki where they admins fail to approve new accounts is one that will likely not go anywhere anyway.  Also, if customized the same way as the one on Sturmkrieg in the Local Settings file, it could be made to look almost just the same as the regular account creation form, by using the Media Wiki pages.  I would also provide the code for these pages on the Hub Wiki.  I think if used properly, it's far more useful.