Countervandalism Network/Cloaks

Countervandalism network

The countervandalism network
is a distinct group. It is neither
affiliated with nor managed by the
Wikimedia Foundation.

On IRC, a hostname cloak replaces the display of your IP address or IP hostname with a cloak. These hostnames are typically displayed in join/part/quit messages, and in the output of "WHO" or "WHOIS" commands.

For example, jvol@100.40.60.89 could become jvol@countervandalism/Alexander-Sigachov.

Purposes of a cloak

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People typically use cloaks in order to hide their IP (which can be considered sensitive and private), to promote their activity with a project, or to prove their on-wiki identity. Note: A cloak will not securely hide your IP completely. There are ways around it. If you are concerned about exposing your real IP address, use Tor or a VPN.

Gaining a cloak

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The simplest way to get a cloak is to use the self-service bot in the #libera-cloak channel (see instructions). This will instantly give you a generic @user/irc-username cloak. There are also @wikimedia, @wikipedia and other cloaks available via IRC/Cloaks.

To get a @countervandalism cloak, follow the below request process.

Requests

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Cloaks can now be requested here. If you do not have an IRC account with Libera Chat, you must set one up first.

Countervandalism cloaks are temporarily unavailable. Ask in #countervandalism for more information.