Author Topic: Spam on wiki  (Read 3875 times)

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Spam on wiki
« on: May 22, 2015, 08:11:28 PM »
Hi,

A few weeks ago I reverted the front page of the wiki to remove some spam, but I notice there are just over 49,000 orphaned pages, with more being created at an alarming rate (over 100 per day). They all seem to be spam and I can't see a way to report them other than posting here - so I'm doing that.  :)

I realise I'm new here, but I'm happy to help remove them if that would be an appropriate offer to make.

John

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Indeed a problem and thanks for the offer (Re: Spam on wiki)
« Reply #1 on: May 22, 2015, 10:47:05 PM »
Dear John and WeatherCat documentalists,

First things first, . . . . welcome to the WeatherCat forum!

A few weeks ago I reverted the front page of the wiki to remove some spam, but I notice there are just over 49,000 orphaned pages, with more being created at an alarming rate (over 100 per day). They all seem to be spam and I can't see a way to report them other than posting here - so I'm doing that.  :)

I just did a quick check and sadly you are 100% correct.  Spammers have a new tactic, and while I'm not sure what good this sort of thing does, I'm sure there is method in it.

I realise I'm new here, but I'm happy to help remove them if that would be an appropriate offer to make.

Let me forward your observations to our fearless leader Stu.  Perhaps he has some anti-spam measures he can turn on.  Also, I assume we need to kick-out the spammers before cleaning up the mess will do us much good.  After that, indeed your help in deleting the garbage would be most appreciated!

Thanks for the head's-up!  [tup]

Cheers, Edouard

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Re: Spam on wiki
« Reply #2 on: May 23, 2015, 09:28:33 AM »
Thanks for the reply, Edouard, and for the welcome. :)

John

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Re: Spam on wiki
« Reply #3 on: May 23, 2015, 10:06:30 AM »
Thanks for letting us know John, much appreciated.

For now I've closed automated registrations on the wiki - if anyone wants a wiki account whilst the auto-registration is disabled, either send an email via the 'contact us' page on the main Trixology web-site, or PM the admin here.

Cheers  [tup]

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Re: Spam on wiki
« Reply #4 on: May 23, 2015, 12:07:28 PM »
Thanks for letting us know John, much appreciated.


You're very welcome. I used to run a CMS several years ago and got to the stage where I enjoyed configuring things to remove the spammers almost as much as the real purpose of the system. Helpfully, they tend to re-use names from other systems, making them very easy to spot even before they start posting. That system hid such entries instead of deleting them, but you could still see them if you knew the URL. As a result one banned spammer emailed me to ask if I could really delete his entries as the links were still in Google and were harming his reputation on other systems. Oh, how I laughed.

I see the wiki is almost clean now, thanks in part to the block deletion of one user with over 12,000 pages to their name - well done!

John

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Re: Spam on wiki
« Reply #5 on: May 23, 2015, 03:44:43 PM »
John: thanks so much for pointing this out.

Stu: I just had a look at the list of changes you have made today. Wow! It's such a shame you have to spend time removing all that spam rather than something fun. Thank you for the massive cleanup. I'll just note that legitimate forum members who already have a Wiki account do not need to re-register as your account still works.
Blick


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Thanks Stu! (Re: Spam on wiki)
« Reply #6 on: May 23, 2015, 09:08:29 PM »
Dear John, Stu, Blick, and WeatherCat infomaniacs . . .

Stu: I just had a look at the list of changes you have made today. Wow! It's such a shame you have to spend time removing all that spam rather than something fun. Thank you for the massive cleanup.

x2!!  Thanks Stu from me too!  [tup]

It is sad the things we need to do just to be able to continue to be civil human beings . . . .

Edouard

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Re: Spam on wiki
« Reply #7 on: May 23, 2015, 09:17:12 PM »
I didn't see the spam on the Wiki but it reminds me of the horrible situation on the old LWC forum that a porno guy abused. Couldn't get the stuff off fast enough. Glad we have had none of that in the WeatherCat forum.