Wikipedia currently has no policy on the validity or proper verification of credentials. Proposals to verify credentials and reject their validity have both been rejected. The purpose of this page is to inform editors about Wikipedia's lack of policy on the issue, particularly new editors who may not be aware of the lack of policy, and to enumerate past rejected proposals on this issue, in order to help build consensus and resolve disputes.
In the absence of an official policy, editors are free to accept, reject, invoke, or verify any credentials as they see fit, but there is no official requirement for any other editors to treat credentials in the same manner. Editors may interpret existing Wikipedia policy as supporting a certain credential policy, but such interpretations may not necessarily be shared by the community and do not necessarily reflect official policy.
Rejected proposals to verify credentials
Rejected proposals to disallow credentials
- Wiki of Trust - A proposal that would enhance the security how personal ID would be verified.
- meta:Talk:CheckUser policy#Real name policy - A proposal to require users to associate real names with their accounts
- Wikipedia:Administrators accountability
Essays on this issue
- Wikipedia:Honesty
- User:Misza13/Nobody cares about your credentials
- Wikipedia:Credentials are irrelevant
- Wikipedia:Credentials matter
- User:Bcasterline/Credentials are harmless