ayg wrote:

Since I'm not a developer (and I'm certainly not brion), I generally don't apply
WONTFIX to anything, but I'll go out on a limb and do it in this case.
Wikimedia is not going to send out millions of letters; it would cost probably
at least $50,000 for enwiki alone, even at bulk postal rates, and that assuming
that all mail is sent at US domestic rates. That's not even to mention that it
would break down for people living in the same place, and could be circumvented
by PO boxes, claims of living far away, asking a neighbor to receive it, etc.;
it's barely going to be more reliable than IP addresses.

There will always be sockpuppets. They're usually obvious if there are more
than a couple, so don't worry about it too much. Use the information available
to you to find them, and deal with them appropriately.

mediazilla wrote:

I think my idea is not as bad... it could also be implemented _after_ the single login (sometime...) is introduced. Then it would dramatically
reduce the costs. And you have to see that Wikimedia shall not send letters to everyone who is registered but to anyone who WANTS to register, i'm
sure in the beginning most of them are not even aware of the feature. Think creative! There are other ways to send letters. Someone who want's to
be registered can send an envelope in an envelope which is already payed - the only problem than would be that we would need somebody who
secretaries that letter-stuff. A german webmail-provider like GMX and Yahoo (and also of that importance, at least locally) for example also sends
letters, that's where i got that idea. Maybeliy WikiMediaFoundation could make a deal with such organisations? I'm sure the logistically aspect is
a tricky issue but why closing it immediately? Let others mention there opionion as this seems to be a hot topic ;D. Therefore I'm going to reopen
the bug.

achuggard wrote:

IMHO... While a very well intentioned idea, I feel there are way too many issues
in order to implement this. The first problem already mentioned is cost. A
second problem is privacy. There are people who register accounts so that their
ip isn't revealed to the entire world, and they can maintain some degree of
anonymity. With a free email address, and the status quo, this is possible to
do. Forcing people to reveal their real address in order to register, takes that
advantage away, and we would lose many potential contributors.

Now suppose we hide the real address, for a paranoid person, that data is still
stored somewhere, therefore they would not register an account either.

Logistically: I'm not sure what this doew to prevent people from making mutiple
accounts. If there are many people living at the same address, they should all
be able to have their own account. Furthermore, if someone has a temporary
address and a permanent address (College students) they now have 2 physical
addresses to recieve mail from that they could take advantage of. Finally what
happens when someone moves?

Sorry, I'm not a developer either, but this would create way too many more
problems than it solves and therefore I'm reclosing this again.