Last modified: 2007-03-12 18:35:12 UTC
Have the autoblocker block addresses for no longer than 15 minutes, counting from the time the original block was issued; if this is more than 15 minutes ago, the autoblocker shoudn't block at all. Rationale: http://en.wikipedia.org/Special:Blockip now lists ranges of addresses that contain proxies through which sometimes hundreds to thousands of different users are individually served. For this reason, it urges administrators not to block any address in these ranges for longer than 15 minutes. If administrators block a registered account editing from such proxies, the autoblocker will kick in and block the offending IP for 24 hours, no questions asked, and the IP is not revealed. Administrators have no way of limiting the damage up front. While users innocently blocked this way can appeal this, it gets old to have to do this every other day. This is not an academic debate. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:WBardwin/AOL_Block_Collection. Barring a more sophisticated handling of proxies by MediaWiki, we desperately need something to contain the damage from things we cannot control. The autoblocker has no business assuming it can block any IP address for 24 hours.
Configuration issue.
The autoblock whitelist (MediaWiki:Autoblock_whitelist) surely makes this a moot issue now.
Vast improvements have been made to the autoblocker so that it behaves itself, can be whitelisted to ignore specific ranges, won't hurt logged-in users, etc. I'm closing this as indirectly resolved.
