I recently moved, and when I returned to the Internet a few days later, I was greeted with several hundred spam pages in Recent Changes. The torrent of spam has not let up, and I estimate that I have blocked 3-500 accounts and deleted as many pages. (I blocked another 5 or so while composing this email.) Certainly the deletion and block logs are long enough: - http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/index.php?title=Special%3ALog&type=delete... - http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/index.php?title=Special:Ipblocklist&limit... I have asked Ashley Yakeley to turn on additional anti-spam measures, but he has not been active on the wiki since January (http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Special:Contributions/Ashley_Y http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/index.php?title=Special:Log&user=Ashley_Y), and has not replied to my talk messages or accompanying emails. I had to do this single-handedly as there are no other administrators. This took up a good chunk of today and yesterday, and the spam is continuing. I cannot handle it much longer: it's incredibly tedious and using up far more time than I have to give it. Measures need to be taken: 1. Email confirmation needs to be checked that Ashley did in fact enable it. I suspect he did not, since I also administrate the LessWrong wiki - which I know for certain has email confirmation is enabled - is being attacked by the same spammers (similar or identical templates & spam) but at a much reduced scale. 2. Additional administrators must be created. I suggest: - dons - Magnus Therning - Neil Mitchell - byorgey - Henk-Jan van Tuyl I am sure there are others who can be trusted. 3. Additional bureaucrats should be created. I suggest myself. 4. ReCAPTCHA enabled for 'edits adding new, unrecognized external links' - which is all of the spam. Further reading: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Combating_spam & http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Anti-spam_features 5. if Ashley is inactive, his account may be a security risk. The English Wikipedia now removes administrator bits after a year of inactivity; we should consider a similar policy. None of these can be taken by myself, as I am neither a sysadmin on Haskell.org nor a bureaucrat on the wiki. If none of these steps are taken and spam continues to remain a problem in 2 months (15 September 2012), I will cease patrolling Recent Changes. I no longer have the time or patience. -- gwern http://www.gwern.net
More admins on the wiki is good, esp. those with experience to implement anti-spam measures. Ashley is around , but as usual, we need more help. On Saturday, July 14, 2012, Gwern Branwen wrote:
I recently moved, and when I returned to the Internet a few days later, I was greeted with several hundred spam pages in Recent Changes. The torrent of spam has not let up, and I estimate that I have blocked 3-500 accounts and deleted as many pages. (I blocked another 5 or so while composing this email.) Certainly the deletion and block logs are long enough:
- http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/index.php?title=Special%3ALog&type=delete... - http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/index.php?title=Special:Ipblocklist&limit...
I have asked Ashley Yakeley to turn on additional anti-spam measures, but he has not been active on the wiki since January (http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Special:Contributions/Ashley_Y
http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/index.php?title=Special:Log&user=Ashley_Y ), and has not replied to my talk messages or accompanying emails.
I had to do this single-handedly as there are no other administrators. This took up a good chunk of today and yesterday, and the spam is continuing. I cannot handle it much longer: it's incredibly tedious and using up far more time than I have to give it. Measures need to be taken:
1. Email confirmation needs to be checked that Ashley did in fact enable it. I suspect he did not, since I also administrate the LessWrong wiki - which I know for certain has email confirmation is enabled - is being attacked by the same spammers (similar or identical templates & spam) but at a much reduced scale. 2. Additional administrators must be created. I suggest:
- dons - Magnus Therning - Neil Mitchell - byorgey - Henk-Jan van Tuyl
I am sure there are others who can be trusted. 3. Additional bureaucrats should be created. I suggest myself. 4. ReCAPTCHA enabled for 'edits adding new, unrecognized external links' - which is all of the spam. Further reading: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Combating_spam & http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Anti-spam_features 5. if Ashley is inactive, his account may be a security risk. The English Wikipedia now removes administrator bits after a year of inactivity; we should consider a similar policy.
None of these can be taken by myself, as I am neither a sysadmin on Haskell.org nor a bureaucrat on the wiki.
If none of these steps are taken and spam continues to remain a problem in 2 months (15 September 2012), I will cease patrolling Recent Changes. I no longer have the time or patience.
-- gwern http://www.gwern.net
_______________________________________________ Haskell mailing list Haskell@haskell.org <javascript:;> http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell
On Sun, 15 Jul 2012 02:39:30 +0200, Gwern Branwen <gwern0@gmail.com> wrote:
2. Additional administrators must be created. I suggest:
- dons - Magnus Therning - Neil Mitchell - byorgey - Henk-Jan van Tuyl
I am willing to do administrator tasks.
4. ReCAPTCHA enabled for 'edits adding new, unrecognized external links' - which is all of the spam.
This is already enabled. Regards, Henk-Jan van Tuyl -- http://Van.Tuyl.eu/ http://members.chello.nl/hjgtuyl/tourdemonad.html Haskell programming --
On Mon, Jul 16, 2012 at 12:03:49AM +0200, Henk-Jan van Tuyl wrote:
On Sun, 15 Jul 2012 02:39:30 +0200, Gwern Branwen <gwern0@gmail.com> wrote:
2. Additional administrators must be created. I suggest:
- dons - Magnus Therning - Neil Mitchell - byorgey - Henk-Jan van Tuyl
I am willing to do administrator tasks.
4. ReCAPTCHA enabled for 'edits adding new, unrecognized external links' - which is all of the spam.
This is already enabled.
I am also willing to do administrator tasks, and can confirm that the ReCAPTCHA for edits adding external links is indeed enabled, since in the course of editing the Typeclassopedia and Diagrams wiki (both hosted on the Haskell wiki) I often add external links. -Brent
So it looks like email confirmation for new accounts and ReCAPTCHA for new links are both enabled, but clearly spam is still a problem. Are there any additional measures we can take to cut down on spam? For the record, if we need to move to a manual approval process for new accounts, I would be willing to help. -Brent On Sat, Jul 14, 2012 at 08:39:30PM -0400, Gwern Branwen wrote:
I recently moved, and when I returned to the Internet a few days later, I was greeted with several hundred spam pages in Recent Changes. The torrent of spam has not let up, and I estimate that I have blocked 3-500 accounts and deleted as many pages. (I blocked another 5 or so while composing this email.) Certainly the deletion and block logs are long enough:
- http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/index.php?title=Special%3ALog&type=delete... - http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/index.php?title=Special:Ipblocklist&limit...
I have asked Ashley Yakeley to turn on additional anti-spam measures, but he has not been active on the wiki since January (http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Special:Contributions/Ashley_Y http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/index.php?title=Special:Log&user=Ashley_Y), and has not replied to my talk messages or accompanying emails.
I had to do this single-handedly as there are no other administrators. This took up a good chunk of today and yesterday, and the spam is continuing. I cannot handle it much longer: it's incredibly tedious and using up far more time than I have to give it. Measures need to be taken:
1. Email confirmation needs to be checked that Ashley did in fact enable it. I suspect he did not, since I also administrate the LessWrong wiki - which I know for certain has email confirmation is enabled - is being attacked by the same spammers (similar or identical templates & spam) but at a much reduced scale. 2. Additional administrators must be created. I suggest:
- dons - Magnus Therning - Neil Mitchell - byorgey - Henk-Jan van Tuyl
I am sure there are others who can be trusted. 3. Additional bureaucrats should be created. I suggest myself. 4. ReCAPTCHA enabled for 'edits adding new, unrecognized external links' - which is all of the spam. Further reading: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Combating_spam & http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Anti-spam_features 5. if Ashley is inactive, his account may be a security risk. The English Wikipedia now removes administrator bits after a year of inactivity; we should consider a similar policy.
None of these can be taken by myself, as I am neither a sysadmin on Haskell.org nor a bureaucrat on the wiki.
If none of these steps are taken and spam continues to remain a problem in 2 months (15 September 2012), I will cease patrolling Recent Changes. I no longer have the time or patience.
-- gwern http://www.gwern.net
participants (4)
-
Brent Yorgey -
Don Stewart -
Gwern Branwen -
Henk-Jan van Tuyl