Editing Encyclopedia:Accountability (section)

== From the viewpoint of merits and demerits ==
Creating an account and logging in helps to improve your [[accountability]], [[Online identity|identity]] and reliability among the community. This means that, when you become a registered editor, you can communicate more easily with other registered editors.
# Registering, although generally seen as desirable, is not compulsory. IP editors often make good contributions.
# As a registered user, you may, in future, be in a position to be considered as a potential administrator, and feel able to accept that responsibility.
# When you register your account, you can create get your own [[Wikipedia:User page|user page]] and [[Wikipedia:User talk page|talk page]] to aid in [[accountability]], etc., and you will become able to edit semi-protected pages, move pages, and so on.
# Even if you choose to remain an IP editors, you can and should work towards [[accountability]] in much the same way as log-in editors. 
 
{{seealso|Wikipedia:Why create an account?}}


<!--The essays below were rejected by two persons at May 15, 2007. Anyone who thinks they have important contents, please improve them, or they will be removed, because they are heavy.-->
<!--
If you don't have a [[login]], it is often too hard for others to recognize you as you and to contact you to raise any comments or concerns with what you write, unfortunately. Therefore, some users find it frustrating to deal with users who are not logged in, so you may find that they take your contributions less seriously and are more suspicious of your motives. 

But it's not that others' frustration is, alone, a valid reason to revert your edits. Rather, that drastic changes to articles ''is'' a reversion, usually, of articles that have some invested discussion in them. The quality of [[Wikipedia]] articles comes as a result of the process of [[democracy]], and the trust other Wikipedians learn to place in you (and your history of quality work) makes the editing process more an aspect of teamwork, rather than showmanship. However this democratic process is not always perfect.  As an example, some people, it is believed, when unsuccessful in making edits under their own identity (because this would mean participation in a process of discussion), resort to logging in anonymously to make major edits. This might yield an increasingly unsatisfactory result over time, especially where working together to write an article with a [[Wikipedia:Neutral point of view|neutral point of view]].

==Benefits of Accountability Log In==

* 1.) Promotes discussion on User Talk pages over edit disagreements and reduces spam on Article Talk pages. While IP addresses do have talk pages, the anon nature of their edits does not promote active discussion on those pages.
* 2.) Allows Admin, other editors, and the [[Wikipedia:Welcoming committee|Welcoming Committee]] to interact with new users more easily on their Talk Pages to encourage better editing skills.
* 3.) Adds one more obstacle for vandals. 
* 4.) Adds one more obstacle to the creation of [[Wikipedia:sock puppet|sock puppets]]
* 5.) Easier to track a User's contribution. When a User must log in to edit, you are more likely to get an accurate representation of the User's contribution to Wikipedia. This is particularly beneficial in discussion about [[Wikipedia:Requests for adminship|proposed admins]] and request for arbitrations.

==Lack of need for Anonymous Edits==

Anyone can create a name, maintain a presence on Wikipedia, and be completely anonymous (you don't have to give us your real name or important email address), free of charge. This way, you can stand by your work, and in doing so, send a message to all  [[Wikipedia:Wikipedians|Wikipedians]] that you think your work is worth standing for.

Someday, some people may create views of the Wikipedia that specifically exclude anonymous changes. This is by no means certain; it's not clear that many Wikipedians would support adding this capability to the main Wikipedia website.  However, anyone can create such a view from the database (''e.g.'', for a [[CD-ROM]]), so this is yet another reason to avoid posting anonymously. For more information, see ''[[Wikipedia:Wikipedia approval mechanism]]''.

A related suggestion is to [[Wikipedia:Sign your posts on talk pages|sign your posts on talk pages]] as it makes the discussion easier to follow.
-->
<!--The essays above were rejected by two persons at May 15, 2007. Anyone who thinks they have important contents, please improve them, or they will be removed, because they are heavy.-->