[cc-devel] Spamlinks on the CC wiki

Discussion:

BjornW

2013-11-11 11:36:56 UTC

Hi,

I just noticed some spam links on the CC wiki. See
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Web_Services in the paragraph
'Documentation' there are words like 'sepatu' linking to an url I won't
repeat here.

Not sure if this is the only page, but perhaps someone of CC HQ could
run some sort of spam link checker over the wiki?

grtz
BjornW
--
met vriendelijke groet,
Bjorn Wijers

* b u r o b j o r n .nl *
digitaal vakmanschap | digital craftsmanship

Werkdagen:
Van maandag t/m donderdag vanaf 10:00
Vrijdag is voor experimenteren en eigen projecten.

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The Netherlands

tel: +31 6 49 74 78 70
http://www.burobjorn.nl

Maarten Zeinstra

2013-11-11 11:50:01 UTC

Permalink

I had a long discussion about the spam on the wiki about with Nathan Kinkade about a year ago. There are several methods in place to try and stop spammers. The ones that get through are either placed by humans or using accounts that are created by humans. It takes human effort to block them as it is, something that CC-HQ had no personnel for at the time.

I tried to help a bit, but it was tedious and not very useful. I did remove all the nudity I could find in the mediastore of wiki last year though. That is a task with things that cannot be unseen..

Best,

Maarten
--

Post by BjornW
Hi,
I just noticed some spam links on the CC wiki. See
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Web_Services in the paragraph
'Documentation' there are words like 'sepatu' linking to an url I won't
repeat here.
Not sure if this is the only page, but perhaps someone of CC HQ could
run some sort of spam link checker over the wiki?
grtz
BjornW
--
met vriendelijke groet,
Bjorn Wijers
* b u r o b j o r n .nl *
digitaal vakmanschap | digital craftsmanship
Van maandag t/m donderdag vanaf 10:00
Vrijdag is voor experimenteren en eigen projecten.
Postbus 14145
3508 SE Utrecht
The Netherlands
tel: +31 6 49 74 78 70
http://www.burobjorn.nl
_______________________________________________
cc-devel mailing list
cc-devel at lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-devel

Mike Linksvayer

2013-11-11 18:05:47 UTC

Permalink

I somewhat sadly recommend installing
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ConfirmAccount

Mike

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
I had a long discussion about the spam on the wiki about with Nathan Kinkade about a year ago. There are several methods in place to try and stop spammers. The ones that get through are either placed by humans or using accounts that are created by humans. It takes human effort to block them as it is, something that CC-HQ had no personnel for at the time.
I tried to help a bit, but it was tedious and not very useful. I did remove all the nudity I could find in the mediastore of wiki last year though. That is a task with things that cannot be unseen..
Best,
Maarten
--

_______________________________________________
cc-devel mailing list
cc-devel at lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-devel

Maarten Zeinstra

2013-11-11 18:18:13 UTC

Permalink

Hi all,

That can only work when HQ wants to/can allocate resources to check this,
but otherwise I would agree that that would be the best option.

Or do away with the Wiki altogether and use a different platform
communicate to our audiences. I only see 20 useful edits per day:
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?namespace=0&title=Special%3ARecentChangesen
about 50 accounts created on that same day.

It really depends on what the underlying idea is of using a wiki. That's
the true issue that HQ needs to discuss, either internally of with the
community.

2013/11/11 Mike Linksvayer <ml at gondwanaland.com>

Post by Mike Linksvayer
I somewhat sadly recommend installing
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ConfirmAccount
Mike

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
I had a long discussion about the spam on the wiki about with Nathan

Kinkade about a year ago. There are several methods in place to try and
stop spammers. The ones that get through are either placed by humans or
using accounts that are created by humans. It takes human effort to block
them as it is, something that CC-HQ had no personnel for at the time.

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
I tried to help a bit, but it was tedious and not very useful. I did

remove all the nudity I could find in the mediastore of wiki last year
though. That is a task with things that cannot be unseen..

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
Best,
Maarten
--
Kennisland | www.kennisland.nl | t +31205756720 | m +31643053919 |

@mzeinstra

Post by Maarten Zeinstra

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BjornW

2013-11-13 13:14:51 UTC

Permalink

Hi,

If I understand correctly there is no one at the moment from HQ who has
time to pick these chores up? That's a shame, cause these spamlinks
can't be good for CC.org pagerank. What can we do to install the tool
mentioned by Mike? Btw in my own experience asking for confirmation will
drastically reduce the amount of spam...

grtz
BjornW

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
Hi all,
That can only work when HQ wants to/can allocate resources to check
this, but otherwise I would agree that that would be the best option.
Or do away with the Wiki altogether and use a different platform
communicate to our audiences. I only see 20 useful edits per
day: http://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?namespace=0&title=Special%3ARecentChanges
en about 50 accounts created on that same day.
It really depends on what the underlying idea is of using a wiki.
That's the true issue that HQ needs to discuss, either internally of
with the community.
2013/11/11 Mike Linksvayer <ml at gondwanaland.com
<mailto:ml at gondwanaland.com>>
I somewhat sadly recommend installing
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ConfirmAccount
Mike
On Mon, Nov 11, 2013 at 3:50 AM, Maarten Zeinstra <mz at kl.nl

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
I had a long discussion about the spam on the wiki about with

Nathan Kinkade about a year ago. There are several methods in
place to try and stop spammers. The ones that get through are
either placed by humans or using accounts that are created by
humans. It takes human effort to block them as it is, something
that CC-HQ had no personnel for at the time.

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
I tried to help a bit, but it was tedious and not very useful. I

did remove all the nudity I could find in the mediastore of wiki
last year though. That is a task with things that cannot be unseen..

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
Best,
Maarten
--
Kennisland | www.kennisland.nl <http://www.kennisland.nl> | t

+31205756720 <tel:%2B31205756720> | m +31643053919

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
On 11 Nov 2013, at 12:36 , BjornW <burobjorn at gmail.com

Post by BjornW
Hi,
I just noticed some spam links on the CC wiki. See
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Web_Services in the paragraph
'Documentation' there are words like 'sepatu' linking to an url

I won't

Post by Maarten Zeinstra

Post by BjornW
repeat here.
Not sure if this is the only page, but perhaps someone of CC HQ

could

Post by Maarten Zeinstra

Post by BjornW
run some sort of spam link checker over the wiki?
grtz
BjornW
--
met vriendelijke groet,
Bjorn Wijers
* b u r o b j o r n .nl *
digitaal vakmanschap | digital craftsmanship
Van maandag t/m donderdag vanaf 10:00
Vrijdag is voor experimenteren en eigen projecten.
Postbus 14145
3508 SE Utrecht
The Netherlands
tel: +31 6 49 74 78 70 <tel:%2B31%206%2049%2074%2078%2070>
http://www.burobjorn.nl
_______________________________________________
cc-devel mailing list
cc-devel at lists.ibiblio.org <mailto:cc-devel at lists.ibiblio.org>
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-devel

_______________________________________________
cc-devel mailing list
cc-devel at lists.ibiblio.org <mailto:cc-devel at lists.ibiblio.org>
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-devel

--
met vriendelijke groet,
Bjorn Wijers

* b u r o b j o r n .nl *
digitaal vakmanschap | digital craftsmanship

Werkdagen:
Van maandag t/m donderdag vanaf 10:00
Vrijdag is voor experimenteren en eigen projecten.

Postbus 14145
3508 SE Utrecht
The Netherlands

tel: +31 6 49 74 78 70
http://www.burobjorn.nl

Mike Linksvayer

2013-11-13 18:43:20 UTC

Permalink

Hi, I've no idea about HQ chores, but to be clear...

The ConfirmAccounts extension requires someone with access to the host
the wiki is running on to install it. I've only installed on one wiki,
but don't recall it being difficult.

The extension places an onerous "confirmation" step prior to getting
an account. I like this better than ones forcing eg a captcha for each
edit, which is annoying, and still leaves RecentChanges filled up with
spam account creations.

An email notification is sent (configurable, probably to whoever gets
webmaster at cc these days) when an account is requested.

Any admin can review and approve pending new accounts at
Special:ConfirmAccounts. Even if nobody reads the email notifications,
trusted people not working directly for CC can monitor ... there are
some inactive people in
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?title=Special%3AListUsers&username=&group=sysop&limit=50
but historically anyone trusted (eg an affiliate or with a long
history in other wikis) and wanting to help was made an admin.

Mike

Post by BjornW
Hi,
If I understand correctly there is no one at the moment from HQ who has
time to pick these chores up? That's a shame, cause these spamlinks
can't be good for CC.org pagerank. What can we do to install the tool
mentioned by Mike? Btw in my own experience asking for confirmation will
drastically reduce the amount of spam...
grtz
BjornW

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
I had a long discussion about the spam on the wiki about with

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
I tried to help a bit, but it was tedious and not very useful. I

did remove all the nudity I could find in the mediastore of wiki
last year though. That is a task with things that cannot be unseen..

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
Best,
Maarten
--
Kennisland | www.kennisland.nl <http://www.kennisland.nl> | t

+31205756720 <tel:%2B31205756720> | m +31643053919

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
On 11 Nov 2013, at 12:36 , BjornW <burobjorn at gmail.com

Post by BjornW
Hi,
I just noticed some spam links on the CC wiki. See
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Web_Services in the paragraph
'Documentation' there are words like 'sepatu' linking to an url

I won't

Post by Maarten Zeinstra

Post by BjornW
repeat here.
Not sure if this is the only page, but perhaps someone of CC HQ

could

Post by Maarten Zeinstra

_______________________________________________
cc-devel mailing list
cc-devel at lists.ibiblio.org <mailto:cc-devel at lists.ibiblio.org>
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-devel

--
met vriendelijke groet,
Bjorn Wijers
* b u r o b j o r n .nl *
digitaal vakmanschap | digital craftsmanship
Van maandag t/m donderdag vanaf 10:00
Vrijdag is voor experimenteren en eigen projecten.
Postbus 14145
3508 SE Utrecht
The Netherlands
tel: +31 6 49 74 78 70
http://www.burobjorn.nl

Dan Mills

2013-11-14 01:29:42 UTC

Permalink

Hey guys,

Yeah, the spam situation is unfortunate. If a few of us can monitor &
approve new accounts I think we could make the confirmation extension
approach work. What do you all think?

I'm in the middle of figuring out a big migration over to AWS, I will
see about sneaking this change in sooner rather than later.

Dan

Post by Mike Linksvayer
Hi, I've no idea about HQ chores, but to be clear...
The ConfirmAccounts extension requires someone with access to the host
the wiki is running on to install it. I've only installed on one wiki,
but don't recall it being difficult.
The extension places an onerous "confirmation" step prior to getting
an account. I like this better than ones forcing eg a captcha for each
edit, which is annoying, and still leaves RecentChanges filled up with
spam account creations.
An email notification is sent (configurable, probably to whoever gets
webmaster at cc these days) when an account is requested.
Any admin can review and approve pending new accounts at
Special:ConfirmAccounts. Even if nobody reads the email notifications,
trusted people not working directly for CC can monitor ... there are
some inactive people in
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?title=Special%3AListUsers&username=&group=sysop&limit=50
but historically anyone trusted (eg an affiliate or with a long
history in other wikis) and wanting to help was made an admin.
Mike

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
I had a long discussion about the spam on the wiki about with

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
I tried to help a bit, but it was tedious and not very useful. I

did remove all the nudity I could find in the mediastore of wiki
last year though. That is a task with things that cannot be unseen..

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
Best,
Maarten
--
Kennisland | www.kennisland.nl <http://www.kennisland.nl> | t

+31205756720 <tel:%2B31205756720> | m +31643053919

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
On 11 Nov 2013, at 12:36 , BjornW <burobjorn at gmail.com

Post by BjornW
Hi,
I just noticed some spam links on the CC wiki. See
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Web_Services in the paragraph
'Documentation' there are words like 'sepatu' linking to an url

I won't

Post by Maarten Zeinstra

Post by BjornW
repeat here.
Not sure if this is the only page, but perhaps someone of CC HQ

could

Post by Maarten Zeinstra

_______________________________________________
cc-devel mailing list
cc-devel at lists.ibiblio.org <mailto:cc-devel at lists.ibiblio.org>
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-devel

_______________________________________________
cc-devel mailing list
cc-devel at lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-devel

Maloney, Christopher (NIH/NLM/NCBI) [C]

2013-11-14 04:21:27 UTC

Permalink

The OBO folks (e.g. http://www.bioperl.org/wiki/Main_Page) squashed the spam problem by requiring people to log in with openid.

Chris Maloney
NIH/NLM/NCBI (Contractor)
Building 45, 5AN.24D-22
301-594-2842

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Mills [mailto:dan at creativecommons.org]
Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2013 8:30 PM
To: Mike Linksvayer
Cc: cc-devel at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [cc-devel] Spamlinks on the CC wiki
Hey guys,
Yeah, the spam situation is unfortunate. If a few of us can monitor &
approve new accounts I think we could make the confirmation extension
approach work. What do you all think?
I'm in the middle of figuring out a big migration over to AWS, I will see
about sneaking this change in sooner rather than later.
Dan
On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 10:43 AM, Mike Linksvayer

http://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?title=Special%3AListUsers&us

Post by Mike Linksvayer
ername=&group=sysop&limit=50 but historically anyone trusted (eg an
affiliate or with a long history in other wikis) and wanting to help
was made an admin.
Mike

Post by BjornW
Hi,
If I understand correctly there is no one at the moment from HQ who
has time to pick these chores up? That's a shame, cause these
spamlinks can't be good for CC.org pagerank. What can we do to
install the tool mentioned by Mike? Btw in my own experience asking
for confirmation will drastically reduce the amount of spam...
grtz
BjornW

http://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?namespace=0&title=Special%

Post by Mike Linksvayer

Post by BjornW

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
3ARecentChanges en about 50 accounts created on that same day.
It really depends on what the underlying idea is of using a wiki.
That's the true issue that HQ needs to discuss, either internally of
with the community.
2013/11/11 Mike Linksvayer <ml at gondwanaland.com
<mailto:ml at gondwanaland.com>>
I somewhat sadly recommend installing
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ConfirmAccount
Mike
On Mon, Nov 11, 2013 at 3:50 AM, Maarten Zeinstra <mz at kl.nl

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
I had a long discussion about the spam on the wiki about with

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
I tried to help a bit, but it was tedious and not very useful. I

did remove all the nudity I could find in the mediastore of wiki
last year though. That is a task with things that cannot be unseen..

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
Best,
Maarten
--
Kennisland | www.kennisland.nl <http://www.kennisland.nl> | t

+31205756720 <tel:%2B31205756720> | m +31643053919

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
On 11 Nov 2013, at 12:36 , BjornW <burobjorn at gmail.com

Post by BjornW
Hi,
I just noticed some spam links on the CC wiki. See
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Web_Services in the paragraph
'Documentation' there are words like 'sepatu' linking to an url

I won't

Post by Maarten Zeinstra

Post by BjornW
repeat here.
Not sure if this is the only page, but perhaps someone of CC HQ

could

Post by Maarten Zeinstra

_______________________________________________
cc-devel mailing list
cc-devel at lists.ibiblio.org <mailto:cc-devel at lists.ibiblio.org>
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-devel

--
met vriendelijke groet,
Bjorn Wijers
* b u r o b j o r n .nl *
digitaal vakmanschap | digital craftsmanship
Van maandag t/m donderdag vanaf 10:00 Vrijdag is voor experimenteren
en eigen projecten.
Postbus 14145
3508 SE Utrecht
The Netherlands
tel: +31 6 49 74 78 70
http://www.burobjorn.nl

_______________________________________________
cc-devel mailing list
cc-devel at lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-devel

Dan Mills

2013-11-15 00:09:07 UTC

Permalink

OpenID has some serious UX and privacy issues, I would not want to
require it. And there's no reason spammers couldn't just adapt to
using OpenID to log in anyway, even if they haven't yet (it's not that
hard).

Dan

Disclaimer: I helped make Mozilla Persona, an alternative to OpenID

On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 8:21 PM, Maloney, Christopher (NIH/NLM/NCBI)

Post by Maloney, Christopher (NIH/NLM/NCBI) [C]
The OBO folks (e.g. http://www.bioperl.org/wiki/Main_Page) squashed the spam problem by requiring people to log in with openid.
Chris Maloney
NIH/NLM/NCBI (Contractor)
Building 45, 5AN.24D-22
301-594-2842

http://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?title=Special%3AListUsers&us

Post by Mike Linksvayer
ername=&group=sysop&limit=50 but historically anyone trusted (eg an
affiliate or with a long history in other wikis) and wanting to help
was made an admin.
Mike

Post by BjornW
Hi,
If I understand correctly there is no one at the moment from HQ who
has time to pick these chores up? That's a shame, cause these
spamlinks can't be good for CC.org pagerank. What can we do to
install the tool mentioned by Mike? Btw in my own experience asking
for confirmation will drastically reduce the amount of spam...
grtz
BjornW

http://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?namespace=0&title=Special%

Post by Mike Linksvayer

Post by BjornW

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
I had a long discussion about the spam on the wiki about with

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
I tried to help a bit, but it was tedious and not very useful. I

did remove all the nudity I could find in the mediastore of wiki
last year though. That is a task with things that cannot be unseen..

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
Best,
Maarten
--
Kennisland | www.kennisland.nl <http://www.kennisland.nl> | t

+31205756720 <tel:%2B31205756720> | m +31643053919

Post by Maarten Zeinstra
On 11 Nov 2013, at 12:36 , BjornW <burobjorn at gmail.com

Post by BjornW
Hi,
I just noticed some spam links on the CC wiki. See
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Web_Services in the paragraph
'Documentation' there are words like 'sepatu' linking to an url

I won't

Post by Maarten Zeinstra

Post by BjornW
repeat here.
Not sure if this is the only page, but perhaps someone of CC HQ

could

Post by Maarten Zeinstra

_______________________________________________
cc-devel mailing list
cc-devel at lists.ibiblio.org <mailto:cc-devel at lists.ibiblio.org>
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-devel

--
met vriendelijke groet,
Bjorn Wijers
* b u r o b j o r n .nl *
digitaal vakmanschap | digital craftsmanship
Van maandag t/m donderdag vanaf 10:00 Vrijdag is voor experimenteren
en eigen projecten.
Postbus 14145
3508 SE Utrecht
The Netherlands
tel: +31 6 49 74 78 70
http://www.burobjorn.nl

_______________________________________________
cc-devel mailing list
cc-devel at lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-devel