Wiki Spam

There have lately been several instances of spam on the wiki, originating from the accounts JackLee (222.94.112.251) and CnRambler (218.2.157.115), both of which seem to be posting from China, however, are probably just using hacked computers there. From what was posted, it looks like they are attempting to raise thier ranking in search engines. This behavior is likely to continue, and may accomplish it's goal even when pages are reverted as search engines watch the Recent Changes page very actively. Any other ideas? Is it time for DavisWiki to implement a CAPTCHA?

2005-10-20 11:15:04   They have been blocked. There have been several episodes of vandalism and spam. To date, they have all been handled quite easily. If this is the first case you've noticed, things are working right as they are. :) —JabberWokky

2005-10-20 11:43:39   JackLee does not show up in the banned group, and my concern is that these spammers will still accomplish thier goals despite being reverted, see google google still finds old versions of pages. —RyanCastellucci

2005-10-20 11:52:30   Odd. It only catches two history pages out of thousands? I wonder what's up with that... Perhaps those were explicitly linked to? In which case, they should likely be indexed. —JabberWokky

All old versions of pages have noindex, nofollow set, which means they are not indexed unless the search engine is donig something very wrong. All actions also cause a noindex, nofollow (page info, etc). Those pages you pointed to do not appear to have been indexed (there is no text) but instead were probably added into an 'index queue' on google's side because of an external link to them (LJ or from within the wiki, likely). Google is probably like "Oh, I checked it out once, didn't let me index, but I'll check back later..". —PhilipNeustrom

2005-10-20 15:06:29   Ah, well then, I have no complaint,then. Should be perfectly fine. —RyanCastellucci

2005-10-20 15:54:01   Deletion... going once... —JabberWokky

2005-10-20 16:19:09   http://sam.zoy.org/pwntcha/ —ArlenAbraham

2005-10-20 16:20:12   This page would serve better as a teaching tool then to cease existance. Keep the page and then integrate the banned user list onto here. Then someone can write up the proper way to deal with it. A few simple changes, reverts. What if it's 5, 10, 15 pages and counting? How should the average wiki user ban the person (as we all have admin status, we should probably know how to rightfully use it). Maybe define it and distinguish between some type of malicious attack versus just a random jerk. etc. Don't delte imo.—EdwinSaada

• I would agree, don't delete this because undoubtedly the subject will come up again. I'd have a general description of the problem as well as a historical section and the discussion at the bottom. Also, currently the average wiki user cannot ban anyone. Giving everyone the ability to ban anyone is bound to be abused in no time. - MikeIvanov
• There is an AdminGroup defined that normal wiki users aren't part of. If you look at the raw recent changes page you'll see the following: #acl AdminGroup:admin,read,write,delete,revert All:read, which is the reason why your average user can only read that page and not edit. —JevanGray

2005-10-20 18:45:28   I wonder if the banned RobertMorris is supposed to be a refererence to the RobertMorris of Internet fame? —NickSchmalenberger

2005-10-20 19:16:05   Yep, I think so. Clever, eh? Also, don't you guys think "BannedGroup" would be an awesome band name? Maybe not. —MikeIvanov

2005-10-20 21:52:17   Rock on, Mike! It seems kind of sad that some script kiddie would use his name to hax0r the wiki. —BrentLaabs

2005-10-21 09:29:40   MY ROOMMATE AND I ARE GETTING NAKED! COME WATCH!!!! FOR HOT HORNY LOCAL GIRLS GO TO WWW.HOTLOCALGIRLSINDAVISWITHNOSHIRTSONFORFREE.COM!!! —DomenicSantangelo, who is self-described as a "hot horny girl".

2020-07-30 14:52:02   Thanks, JW, next time I will call instead of text! —ConstantiaOomen