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It is widely known that editing Wikipedia on Tor IP addresses is systematically banned, to avoid vandalization from abusive users looking for no-risk anonymous editing, for their own wikipedia-unfriendly reasons.

Wikipedia provide a very helpful advice page for users using Tor.

Most of the options they offer involve setting up accounts (either on non-Tor IP addresses or via a 'request an account' process (requiring an email) if it must be Tor), and having Tor unbanned on your account, but I'm looking to make a useful edit without the pseudonymizing element of a Wikipedia username as well as either an email address or a non-Tor IP address unavoidably associated with it.

The option 'Alternative proxies' seems to be the only one for non-account editing via Tor, where it appears to be hit or miss in the blocking success rate of open proxies. This obviously includes both proxies and VPNs, to be connected to within the Tor Browser itself.

What would be a convenient way to do this in the Tor Browser, to attempt 100% anonymous Wikipedia editing on Tor? It must be free, to avoid the potentially pseudonymizing element of payment, if nothing else.

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2 Answers 2

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Setting up an account on Wikipedia does not necessarily lead to pseudonomymizing. The idea behind that is not to link your account to your real ID, but rather to link your account to your behavior on Wikipedia, whether it is good editing, bad editing, vandalizing, or spamming.

Here is an approach that would not endanger your anonymity:

  1. Access Wikipedia from a public WiFi network (such as those found in Cafes), and set up an account there. I recommend entering an email address provided by one of the hidden email service providers.
  2. Ask for Tor to be unbanned on your account.
  3. Now you can access your account via Tor without the risk of pseudonymizing. Your account should stand as long as your abiding by Wikipedia rules.
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    What do you mean with "pseudonomymizing"/"pseudonymizing"?
    – Jens Kubieziel
    Commented Jan 29, 2015 at 9:25
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    The act of linking a user identity to his pseudonym (user account name or nickname)
    – Linostar
    Commented Jan 29, 2015 at 9:31
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You must understand that new Tor exit nodes are being created every minute or so. You can just use a new one, it will not be in Wikipedia block list. I do not remember the correct torrc option for this though. Smth like "Up since" maybe. See https://tormap.void.gr/

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