WikiProject:Junking bots

Template:TOCright WikiProject:Junking bots — currently we observe very special spam attacs -- only IPs -- that place single nonsense words in existing pages. John stated that we are not the only wiki that is annoyed. They are testing the terrain before putting in real spam, said Felix.

Turns out I was right, too. Recently, I deleted several dozen links to adult content from a page. -- Felix Pleşoianu | talk 08:55, 13 October 2007 (EDT)

We found it useful to block them for 3 days or for the first and even longer if we observe them junking after that.

If YOU are blocked

If you, as a normal user, feel blocked due to a blocked IP, please contact one of the administrators. They will unblock you.

Lists of blocked IPs

Maybe we should make blocked IPs visible and describe why we have blocked them.

MediaWiki has two built-in functions for keeping track of blocking actions on IP editors and user accounts:

• the Special:Ipblocklist shows the current blocked ones (reach, expiry time) - Note: doesn't work here on WikiIndex, target page is Special:BlockList.
• the block log shows each particular block action

This is the list of IPs blocked by User:Peu as a starting point.

Block the 'bad' IPs

• 1 day -- that's nonsense, they spam for short one day and paus 1 day (1 day is to little)
• 3 days -- anon only, for the first
• 1 week -- anon only, for the second

and make further comments on former blockings, for instance 3d .. 1w, that means 3 days last, 1 week now.

Maybe I'm too radical, but in the case of a {{spammer}} returning for a third time or so I'd block the IP for a longer time. Several months, at least. -- Felix Pleşoianu | talk 08:55, 13 October 2007 (EDT)

Felix, an IP is not a user, it's a internet cafe or company or it's dynamically assigned to a user. You should consider this aspect. --87.160.141.40 15:47, 13 October 2007 (EDT)

What's the difference, if the icafe's computers are infected and part of a botnet? Hopefully, in a few months they'll reinstall their OS. In the meantime, humans who want to edit can still make accounts. -- Felix Pleşoianu | talk 01:48, 14 October 2007 (EDT)

Ok, Felix, keep in mind to uncheck "block account creation" when you are about to block an IP, ragards --87.160.138.221 06:30, 14 October 2007 (EDT), thats's me, forgot to login --Wolf | talk 06:32, 14 October 2007 (EDT)

Make sure to uncheck "account creation". We are mostly spammed by IPs.

After having blocked a user, look at the contributions again. Review all edits marked with top

Think about watching pages. All unwatched pages will be edited without any automatic email notifications. Note for sysops: you don't 'watch' pages automatically that you [rollback].

Should we create IP-pages?

Logged in users have their home spaces, why not bots? We could protect IP-pages against anon contributions, and elaborate the blocking policy for each IP like this:

• spammer
• useful contributions
• shared

reCaptcha for all anonymous edits?

As of 2007-10-25 we are facing a huge wave of spamming. May I suggest we consider enabling reCaptcha for all anonymous edits, regardless of whether they add links or not? It's still more convenient for occasional contributors than having to sign up. -- Felix Pleşoianu | talk 00:40, 25 October 2007 (EDT)

do you mean http://recaptcha.net/ ? --Wolf | talk 04:24, 25 October 2007 (EDT)

http://recaptcha.net/plugins/mediawiki/ --Wolf | talk 04:27, 25 October 2007 (EDT)

Um, yes, that's the one. We already have it integrated :) But currently it only shows up when an edit adds new links. I'd guess that's the reason why we haven't seen much actual link spam: it takes a human to overcome the captcha. But having to clean up lots of gibberish isn't less annoying.

I find it a good idea to have the captcha active on every anon edit (if it's not too hard to decipher for humans). I think John is the one who has access to the config settings. --Wolf | talk 14:51, 25 October 2007 (EDT)

Further reading

• For the official WikiIndex policy, see WikiIndex:Blocking and banning policy.