Proposal:Create a new user-class, Proven

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The status of this proposal is:
Request for Discussion / Sign-Ups

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  1. Achieve continued growth in readership
  2. Focus on quality content
  3. Increase Participation
  4. Stabilize and improve the infrastructure
  5. Encourage Innovation



Summary

To create a third type of user, in addition to "Registered" and "Anonymous IP", for users who have proven their identity.

Proposal

To create a mechanism whereby users can "prove" their identity to the Wikimedia Foundation in some way, registered under their real names (or a reasonable approximation), and have some icon appear alongside their usernames in history and talk pages.

Motivation

Even in this day and age, when half your friends and most of your acquaintances are on-line, there is something extra in knowing someone in the real world. In the case of Wikimedia, it likely means you've made that extra effort to contribute to some event, away from your keyboard.

It may also make some people feel more connected to the project.

Key Questions

Would enough people care?

Would the sort of people who care be exactly the sort of people who shouldn't get special recognition?

Potential Costs

Verifying real world identities with the office will create admin work - if this took off and a significant minority of editors were verifying their real life identities it would require a back office team.

More people editing under real life identities would lead to more problems of real life harassment, need for oversight etc.

References

Community Discussion

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