SPAM

[mrs_potatohead]

The spam has become overwhelming. It's a waste of time, demoralizing, an unsightly mess on the Recent Changes page, and while we're lucky right now to have dedicated spam-whackers, this isn't always going to be the case.

What are our alternatives to simply knocking it out as it appears? Can this issue be bumped up to some tech people who can help? There's GOT to be some solution out there!

MPH

Comments

[aethel]

We notified Systems about the issue, and they've been looking into it. They did add something in December, but the really helpful spam blocking extension won't work with our version of Mediawiki (or with the next version we're looking to upgrade to). Some solutions would hinder legitimate edits, so it's always a balancing act.

[mrs_potatohead]

I know we're getting more spam because the site is more visible. And I understand the balancing act; no one wants to make it harder for real users to register. But for every legitimate single "new user," we must get (just a guess) 50 new spam "registrants."

I'm really, really concerned that this inability to curb the spam is going to hinder Fanlore in a major way by taking away valuable energy and by gnawing away at our real value. It's gone beyond an annoyance, and is downright dangerous. I think finding some sort of solution should be at the top of the wiki's, and OTW's, list of priorities.

I've been thinking about this for a month or so, and I'm really worried.

[aethel]

It bothers me, too, and the wikimmittee and systems are looking into it. We've been on hiatus since term ended mid December, so action has been slow. In the meantime I will continue to fight the good fight and am happy to give gardener privileges to more editors who want to block spammers.

The silver lining is that these are orphaned pages that are easy to identify and don't interfere with any of the good content. No one who doesn't look at Recent Changes will see the spam. At least this is what I keep telling myself every time I look at Recent Changes and gasp at the sea of red.

(If any passers-by happpen to know of technical solutions that work with MediaWiki 1.15.5-2 or 1.17.0, I am all ears....)

[mrs_potatohead]

I'm fighting along with you and with all the folks who've done a fabulous job of stemming off the horde; every time someone whacks down another set of spam, I feel proud to be associated with such a hardworking, and observant, bunch of people.

Perhaps after the hiatus, there will be some solutions to our problem. I really hope so.

[astolat]

Hey aethel, I checked and there's a plugin for Akismet (the spam-blocker that basically kills nearly all spam on AO3) and MediaWiki 1.12+:

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:AkismetKlik

It doesn't seem to prevent account creation but will prevent edits.

[aethel]

thanks! I passed it along to Systems.

[cesy]

I'd be up for doing some spam-fighting, if you can give privileges to my account.

yay!

[aethel]

you now have gardener permissions and should be able to block spammers and delete pages.

[tai]

I'm happy to help fight spam if you give me gardener privileges!

[onceamy]

Granted -- thanks for being willing to help out :)

[facetofcathy]

Regular readers here might remember the charts I did last summer. I just updated them.




And, holy crap!

The December 2011 numbers show a huge increase in percentage of new users banned as spammers. Almost 50%. And that's out of an unprecedented huge number of new users at 375. ETA: It is clear looking at the new user lists that most of the 51% or so not banned are NOT regular users. They're mostly potential spammers that never make and spam to get them blocked.

The January numbers look even higher for new users and banned users.


I'm sorry to say this, but the time has come when consideration has to be given to moderating new user sign-up in some way. This is not going to just go away, and the trend is showing a lot of growth in spammers.

[mrs_potatohead]

December was bad. January is proving to be worse. And there's no sign, or reason, that things will get better.

I agree about there being a need for some sort of new user sign-up moderation. Nothing threatening, just some sort of quarantine where in order to be a "new user," you have to prove you're a human with some sort of fannish goal -- nothing big, nothing amazing, but SOMETHING.

[heresluck]

...yikes. That is *really* disconcerting.

[tiyire]

Looking at Recent Changes the number of spam bots signing up seems to be still growing quickly - how many today? :(

[(Anonymous)]

Has there been any progress on what we can do to curb the spam?

One solution: Can we ask for a statement of intent/interest upon sign-up (as many moderated lists do) and hand-moderate them?

MPH

[aethel]

Moderating is unwise, given the perennial staffing issues on the wiki committee. Systems just added a 4-hour(?) hold on page creation following sign-up. I know we announced a similar hold a few weeks ago, but some spam was still going through. Let us know if you see any more new spam pages created immediately after the user signs up.