Editing Encyclopedia:Username policy (section)

=== UseModWiki-era anonymous users ===
{{Policy shortcut|WP:USEMODDOMAIN}}
[[UseModWiki]], the software used on Wikipedia throughout 2001 and in early 2002, treated users who edited without logging in or providing a screen name differently from modern-day MediaWiki. Anonymous users in that time were treated in one of two ways:
*'''Domain names:''' Up until about March 2001, an editor with an IP address "192.0.2.34" that was associated with domain name "host.2.34.example.net" would have their edit logged as being by "host.2.34.example.net". Examples of this are [[User:office.bomis.com|office.bomis.com]], [[Special:Contributions/Dhcp-22-128.lclark.edu|dhcp-22-128.lclark.edu]], and [[Special:Contributions/cnts2p46.uwaterloo.ca|cnts2p46.uwaterloo.ca]]. Contributions by users with these usernames are affected by [[phab:T2323|T2323]]. These usernames are usually [[WP:BLOCK|indefinitely blocked]] on sight, as a) they don't make good usernames in light of the above criteria, b) they were never true usernames in the first place and would thus have been abandoned with changing software, and c) modern software is such that an innocent contributor editing from the "host.2.34.example.net" server would <em>not</em> be affected by a block of "User:host.2.34.example.net".
*'''Redacted IP addresses:''' An editor with that same IP address that was not associated with any domain name (or all UseModWiki edits after about March 2001) would have their edit logged as being by "192.0.2.xxx". The [[WP:Phase II software|Phase II software]] also exhibited this trait. Examples of this are [[Special:Contributions/209.69.30.xxx|209.69.30.xxx]] and [[Special:Contributions/62.110.183.xxx|62.110.183.xxx]].