Depending on what a Wiki aims to achieve, there may be reasons why there is a requirement for registration. In Wikiproteins we want to register bio-medical scientific information. Original research is allowed and it is thereby less obvious what makes a genuine edit and a malicious edit. With bio-medical information you run the additional risk that people suffer needlessly as a consequence. To be willing to make use of the information and the opportunity we hope to provide the people who have worked with us are adamant that completely anonymous users will be a big hindrance in gaining trust for our Wiki.

It is for reasons like this that you have to really think through what the reasons are for being less permissive then you would like to be. Patterns are often right, but you have to apply them in a context. The context may require a different pattern.

Posted by Gerard Meijssen at Aug 31, 2007 06:48

While registration can really diminish or kill any activity on a wiki, it can help to prevent malicious content on the site; this can be problematic for small wikis or small, upcoming ones. Remember that there are others who place copyrighted material on the wiki; no wiki owner would like to be in court because of copyright infringement. Registration can quickly stop any troller/ hacker and spammer from accomplishing his task. How? By simply banning them from the site.

Oh! And did this pattern consider these:

1. The web host's terms and conditions
2. The host's server configurations. Some require their clients to ensure that the scripts they use should be as restrictive as possible.

Posted by paul kanui at Jul 17, 2009 04:19