stop spamming tinwiki articles!!!

I was interested and decided to look at the recent changes page on tinwiki.org today. Did you know what I found out? I found out that most changes to tinwiki articles are, correct me if I am wrong, spam-related. This means that tinwiki editors, such as WilliamOneSac who, it seems, does the most of the changing, are wasting their time simply deleting spam from articles . To me, at least, I think that the jobs of the tinwiki editors are to, well, edit the content of the articles (and not to merely waste time on getting rid of spam). I know it's a dirty job, but still . So what are the consequences of spamming tinwiki that can/is helping the problem of spamming? Take a look at the recent changes page and one will find out. The IP address of the spammer will be banned for one year (I wonder if this ban applies to ATS/BTS/PTS/etc. as well, as this would be great). So, in conclusion, stop spamming tinwiki so editors like WilliamOneSac (and the rest of the crew) can get to what I think are the real aspects of their jobs . Thank you. ( I wonder how many spammers will see this thread ).

Most of that spam comes from bots. And yes, there is a ridiculous amount of it. We have been trying to install CAPTCHA into the tinWiki, but have been unsuccessful so far. It would be great though, as you say, if more editors would take an interest in the site. There is some really great information there, and it really has potential to be something great in the future.

Originally posted by William One Sac
Most of that spam comes from bots. And yes, there is a ridiculous amount of it. We have been trying to install CAPTCHA into the tinWiki, but have been unsuccessful so far.

Even if they are bots, are the IP addresses blocked for ATS/BTS/PTS/etc? This would be great as the bots use the IP's of their spammer's computer, right?

reply to post by they see ALL


I do not believe that the ip's are blocked here. And to be honest, blocking these ip's is almost useless as the spammers use rotating ip addresses. It's like playing whack-a-mole deleting the garbage on a daily basis. But it is the only thing we can do at this point in time, until SkepticOverlord figures out how to install CAPTCHA or another anti-spam method on the website. Somebody commented on one of the talk pages that the reason that we get so much spam is because we are using an antiquated version of the Wiki. But it would be nice if more editors took an interest in maintaining the website. As of now it is just Optimist and myself deleting the spam.

Originally posted by William One Sac
reply to post by they see ALL

 

I do not believe that the ip's are blocked here. And to be honest, blocking these ip's is almost useless as the spammers use rotating ip addresses. It's like playing whack-a-mole deleting the garbage on a daily basis. But it is the only thing we can do at this point in time, until SkepticOverlord figures out how to install CAPTCHA or another anti-spam method on the website.

Yeah, that sucks. I didn't think this would work, as I thought that spammers wouldn't care if there banned from ATS/BTS/PTS/etc. .

But it would be nice if more editors took an interest in maintaining the website.

As of now it is just Optimist and myself deleting the spam.

Yes, it would be nice . I should have more of a concern for maintaining the site myself .

The reason why the attempt at installing the CAPTCHA spam fighting feature in tinWiki failed, may be something I came across now while looking briefly at info on this subject:

• The ConfirmEdit extension requires MediaWiki 1.6.0+.
  
  
• tinWiki currently uses MediaWiki: 1.5.7

I have created a little space on my tinWiki user page where I can collect information about spam fighting in MediaWiki wikis, so little by little I may be able to contribute at least some clues so how one can go about it when installing CAPTCHA and/or other spam fighting measures in tinWiki. But if I've understood this correctly, it seems the ConfirmEdit Extension is the basic extension that gives the CAPTCHA feature (one can seemingly add on more advanced versions of this sort of "are you human?" test once the ConfirmEdit Extension is already installed). If that's the case, then it seems tinWiki needs to get upgraded from version 1.5.7 to version 1.6.0 before CAPTCHA can be installed...

The search for answers continues. :-) "Deny ignorance."

Optimist

cant you just download all the new proxies that come out? I mean theres about 1 billion programs that these bots use to change to these newly posted proxies, what about blocking all these anonymous proxies?

im pretty sure thats what they are using, what probs are u having with captcha ?

I am not an expert on wiki by any means, but truthfully you would be better off only allowing authorized people to edit/make changes. disallow editing all together unless they are people you know/trust/can verify. The problem with any wiki oriented deal, is that it allows for people to come in an edit and spam to their hearts content. Seems to me you need to disallow such.

Trance Optic,

Yes, if I understand you correctly, it is possible to install a black-list feature that prevents posting from known spam IP addresses. How that feature is installed, I don't know (but I may come across the exact instructions in my little project of finding out about spam fighting methods).

As to the problems with CAPTCHA, I notice that the feature is in fact registered as being installed -- but it is not working properly... The reason why it is not working, is, I guess, that the MediaWiki version currently used by tinWiki does not properly support the ConfirmEdit Extension. I believe what is supposed to happen, is one should not be able to post external links without passing the CAPTCHA test. I may have gotten it a bit wrong, though, and that there are settings that might be wrongly set, and that that's why it doesn't work. But for now it seems to me version 1.6.0 is required, and tinWiki uses version 1.5.7, which is obviously an earlier version.

Optimist

Originally posted by WhiteWash
[... ]The problem with any wiki oriented deal, is that it allows for people to come in an edit [...]

It indeed is a "double-edged sword", or what it's called, but I believe the whole idea is really that anyone should be able to edit tinWiki. Lock out all spammers, and much of the purpose of tinWiki is also "locked out" with them...

tinWiki has survived quite well even without any spam fighting measures in place, using only the manual efforts of a few people -- mainly the efforts of tinWiki Master William One Sac. So I think that if some features are installed (maybe both Captcha and IP black-list), and one or two more individuals join in with looking after tinWiki, the great idea of offering a place for anyone to help create an online "alternative" information base and encyclopedia, is then a fairly realistic idea.

Optimist

Originally posted by WhiteWash
I am not an expert on wiki by any means, but truthfully you would be better off only allowing authorized people to edit/make changes. disallow editing all together unless they are people you know/trust/can verify.

Hey, good idea. Maybe we should only allow ATSers to edit tinwiki . I know the whole point of wiki's are to allow anyone to make changes, but this may be a great advancement. Plus, it will increase the popularity of ATS, right?

i believe you may be on to something my dear watson.


Would keep an somewhat watchful eye if not a registered digital trail on who would post spam......becuz its not good digitized. only fried.

plus make it so that ever wiki article gets points...... then you will triple the effort... as well as make sure not too much trash is littering our learning space.

Originally posted by Trance Optic
i believe you may be on to something my dear watson.

I thought it would be a good idea.

plus make it so that ever wiki article gets points...... then you will triple the effort...

In the past, one would get 10,000 ATS points for every article he/she created. I don't know about now, though.

10,000,000 Meeeeeellion Points * holds pinky to corner of lips *

that would be pretty encouraging, hope this is able to be determined soon.....tghe best of luck in your endeavors.

Originally posted by Trance Optic
that would be pretty encouraging, hope this is able to be determined soon.....tghe best of luck in your endeavors.

Like I said, that's the reward one would get in the past. I think I ended up getting 100,000 ATS points for my ten articles I created for tinwiki (I wanted to be an editor for tinwiki and, in order to do that, I had to make ten articles).

Ah so its 10 articles to become a editor, ive only done 5 i think, maybe 6, ill ahve to check. Any way, is spam still a problem on tinwiki or is this thread a little out-dated?