"Only a few people on Wikipedia are trusted with sockpuppet investigations. Like forensic investigations in the real world, they tend to reveal the most sensiti

"Only a few people on Wikipedia are trusted with sockpuppet investigations. Like forensic investigations in the real world, they tend to reveal the most sensitive information. In this case, that means a Wikipedia user's IP address, the unique number that identifies the computer network you use to connect to the Internet. For any logged-in Wikipedia user, IP addresses are usually hidden." There are a lot of high-profile, well liked websites that allow a broader group of moderators to have access to this kind of user information, and at least some (one where I am a member of the moderation team) that attempt to use automated means to detect sockpuppets. I understand some of the cultural reasons why Wikipedia has been reluctant to defend itself more aggressively, but it's regrettable how little Wikipedia does to protect itself against the kind of abuse described in the article kindly submitted here.