Talk:Spam blacklist

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WM:SPAM

The associated page is used by the Mediawiki Spam Blacklist extension, and lists strings of text that may not be used in URLs in any page in Wikimedia Foundation projects (as well as many external wikis). Any meta administrator can edit the spam blacklist. There is also a more aggressive way to block spamming through direct use of $wgSpamRegex. Only developers can make changes to $wgSpamRegex, and its use is to be avoided whenever possible.

For more information on what the spam blacklist is for, and the processes used here, please see Spam blacklist/About.

Please post comments to the appropriate section below: Proposed additions, Proposed removals, or Troubleshooting and problems, read the messageboxes at the top of each section for an explanation. Also, please check back some time after submitting, there could be questions regarding your request. Per-project whitelists are discussed at MediaWiki talk:Spam-whitelist. In addition to that, please sign your posts with ~~~~ after your comment. Other discussions related to this last, but that are not a problem with a particular link please see, Spam blacklist policy discussion.

Completed requests are archived (list, search), additions and removal are logged.

Projects

Information: List of all projects; Overviews; Reports; Wikimedia Embassy; Project portals; Country portals
Tools: Spam blacklist; Title blacklist; Email blacklist; Rename blacklist; Closure of wikis; Interwiki map
Requests: Permissions; Bot flags; New languages; New projects; Username changes; Translations; Speedy deletions

[edit]

snippet for logging: {{/request|953136#section_name}} -- (No spaces please, ".26" for "/", etc, c.f.w:ASCII#ASCII printable characters)

If you cannot find your remark below, please do a search for the url (link) in question with this Archive Search tool.

Spam that is only affecting a single project should go to that project's local blacklist, if available: ENWP

Proposed additions

Latest comment: 16 years ago21 comments9 people in discussion

This section is for proposing that a website be blacklisted; add new entries at the bottom of the section, using the basic URL so that there is no link (example.com, not http://www.example.com). Provide links demonstrating widespread spamming by multiple users. Completed requests will be marked as done or denied and archived.

Proxy lists

www.bind.com Myspace Proxy Server]
www.opencity.us Anonymous proxy For Schools]
free-proxy.org.ua Free Proxy list. Daily Updated. HTTP, Socks]
geexzone.free.fr/ Free WebProxy]
www.trproxy.net Proxy]

I found these when clearing out a list of bot-reported spam links. I see a lot of lists like this on proxy articles, all of which are SPAMHOLE candidates. Should we consider blocking sites that are just lists of proxies? JzG 19:24, 27 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

Was that crosswiki spam? — VasilievVV 04:57, 28 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

Linked on several wikis, yes, but I deleted them. Thing is, proxy lists have no obvious valid use on Wikipedias. JzG 23:01, 30 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

www.ip-adress.com

Continued linkspamming from various IP-adresses (see here for years wiki-wide for commercial site.

www.ip-adress.com

(LinkSearch: meta | en | es | de | fr | ru | zh | simple | c | d | Wikipedias: top 25 · 50 · major wikis · sc · gs)(Search: Google | en (G) | fr (G) | de (G) | meta (G) | backlinks | → links ←)

Kind regards, MoiraMoira 17:48, 30 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

{{notdone}} I'm sorry, at this time I'm unable to see any additions to other foundation projects. If this link addition is a local problem (to nl wikipedia), then please add this link to your local blacklist. nl:Mediawiki:Spam-blacklist would be where to add the link. However you will need to find an administrator to add the link. —— nix eagle 23:34, 30 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

This link has been spammed cross-wiki; here are just a sample based on the page of IP addresses cited above:

Here are some related domains; I found no links to any of them on any projects:

surfbyproxy.net

(LinkSearch: meta | en | es | de | fr | ru | zh | simple | c | d | Wikipedias: top 25 · 50 · major wikis · sc · gs)(Search: Google | en (G) | fr (G) | de (G) | meta (G) | backlinks | → links ←)

whosonmyserver.com

(LinkSearch: meta | en | es | de | fr | ru | zh | simple | c | d | Wikipedias: top 25 · 50 · major wikis · sc · gs)(Search: Google | en (G) | fr (G) | de (G) | meta (G) | backlinks | → links ←)

myip.es

(LinkSearch: meta | en | es | de | fr | ru | zh | simple | c | d | Wikipedias: top 25 · 50 · major wikis · sc · gs)(Search: Google | en (G) | fr (G) | de (G) | meta (G) | backlinks | → links ←)

surfbyproxy.net

(LinkSearch: meta | en | es | de | fr | ru | zh | simple | c | d | Wikipedias: top 25 · 50 · major wikis · sc · gs)(Search: Google | en (G) | fr (G) | de (G) | meta (G) | backlinks | → links ←)

theprivacyguard.com

(LinkSearch: meta | en | es | de | fr | ru | zh | simple | c | d | Wikipedias: top 25 · 50 · major wikis · sc · gs)(Search: Google | en (G) | fr (G) | de (G) | meta (G) | backlinks | → links ←)

myip-info.com

(LinkSearch: meta | en | es | de | fr | ru | zh | simple | c | d | Wikipedias: top 25 · 50 · major wikis · sc · gs)(Search: Google | en (G) | fr (G) | de (G) | meta (G) | backlinks | → links ←)

seccural.net

(LinkSearch: meta | en | es | de | fr | ru | zh | simple | c | d | Wikipedias: top 25 · 50 · major wikis · sc · gs)(Search: Google | en (G) | fr (G) | de (G) | meta (G) | backlinks | → links ←)

onlinedietinformation.com

(LinkSearch: meta | en | es | de | fr | ru | zh | simple | c | d | Wikipedias: top 25 · 50 · major wikis · sc · gs)(Search: Google | en (G) | fr (G) | de (G) | meta (G) | backlinks | → links ←)

eigene-ip.de

(LinkSearch: meta | en | es | de | fr | ru | zh | simple | c | d | Wikipedias: top 25 · 50 · major wikis · sc · gs)(Search: Google | en (G) | fr (G) | de (G) | meta (G) | backlinks | → links ←)

myipgirl.com

(LinkSearch: meta | en | es | de | fr | ru | zh | simple | c | d | Wikipedias: top 25 · 50 · major wikis · sc · gs)(Search: Google | en (G) | fr (G) | de (G) | meta (G) | backlinks | → links ←)

stockingstuffers24.com

(LinkSearch: meta | en | es | de | fr | ru | zh | simple | c | d | Wikipedias: top 25 · 50 · major wikis · sc · gs)(Search: Google | en (G) | fr (G) | de (G) | meta (G) | backlinks | → links ←)

ip-adresse.de

(LinkSearch: meta | en | es | de | fr | ru | zh | simple | c | d | Wikipedias: top 25 · 50 · major wikis · sc · gs)(Search: Google | en (G) | fr (G) | de (G) | meta (G) | backlinks | → links ←)

Google Adsense ID: 1452210452390883

I'm not sure this one is worth blacklisting given the number of innocently placed links.

--A. B. ^(talk) 02:15, 31 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

Ok, in that case, I'll leave it up to someone else... I totally missed the links :S. —— nix eagle 18:03, 31 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

Then I hope this can be dealt with :) Thanx in advance, kind regards, MoiraMoira 10:56, 1 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

John titor / islamhouse.com

Two temporary additions made to stop ongoing crosswiki spammer:

1

User: 83.190.116.58 xwiki-contribs • xwiki-date ^(alt) • ST • IP info • WHOIS • robtex • gblock • glist • abuselog • bullseye creating empty pages with English links only, examples: az:John titor, vo:John titor, cy:John titor

57, added link temporary to spam blacklist.

Should be removed, best regards, --birdy geimfyglið _(:> )=| ∇ 13:39, 1 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Removed again, because it is used in many wikis, I hope the spammer has stopped now, best regards, --birdy geimfyglið _(:> )=| ∇ 17:07, 1 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

2

User: 77.31.112.228 xwiki-contribs • xwiki-date ^(alt) • ST • IP info • WHOIS • robtex • gblock • glist • abuselog • bullseye example diff

Should probably be removed, best regards, --birdy geimfyglið _(:> )=| ∇ 15:46, 1 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

leaving this one, the link does not work anyway, he went through all Islam-related articles, best regards, --birdy geimfyglið _(:> )=| ∇ 17:07, 1 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Wilhelm Maybach

docs.google.com/Doc?docid=ddmfmctb_88d85bf3hc&hl=en/ was spammed in many articles about Wilhelm Maybach:

Thanks --Jaqen 09:42, 2 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

I had rollbacked those edits, but the link was inserted again, by another IP (eg). I didn't rollback this time. Bye. --Jaqen 09:39, 7 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

www.fcbursa.com/

Commercial tourist night club site placed by one IP-address, currently on 5 Wikipedia versions, now active.

www.fcbursa.com/

(LinkSearch: meta | en | es | de | fr | ru | zh | simple | c | d | Wikipedias: top 25 · 50 · major wikis · sc · gs)(Search: Google | en (G) | fr (G) | de (G) | meta (G) | backlinks | → links ←)

www.fcbursa.com/

(LinkSearch: meta | en | es | de | fr | ru | zh | simple | c | d | Wikipedias: top 25 · 50 · major wikis · sc · gs)(Search: Google | en (G) | fr (G) | de (G) | meta (G) | backlinks | → links ←)

Kind regards, MoiraMoira 09:50, 7 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

modelsobserver.com

modelsobserver.com

(LinkSearch: meta | en | es | de | fr | ru | zh | simple | c | d | Wikipedias: top 25 · 50 · major wikis · sc · gs)(Search: Google | en (G) | fr (G) | de (G) | meta (G) | backlinks | → links ←)

Presently, we have >80 of these links in various Wikipedias:

This link has been relentlessly spammed for many months. Here's a partial list of the Israeli IPs adding these links:

Reference:

en:Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Spam#modelsobserver.com (permanent link)

Links need removal before this can be blacklisted -- can someone help with this? Thanks.
--A. B. ^(talk) 18:39, 9 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

conflictologist.narod.ru

conflictologist.narod.ru: Linksearch meta - en - de - fr - simple - wikt:en - wikt:fr • Reports: Links on en - COIBot - Eagle's spam report search • Interwiki link search, big: 20 - 57 • Linkwatcher: search • Wikipedia: en - fr - de • Google: search • Veinor pages • meta • Yahoo: backlinks • Domain: domaintools • AboutUs.org • DomainsDB.net • Alexa • OnSameHost.com

tipsity.com spam

Spam domains

tipsity.com

(LinkSearch: meta | en | es | de | fr | ru | zh | simple | c | d | Wikipedias: top 25 · 50 · major wikis · sc · gs)(Search: Google | en (G) | fr (G) | de (G) | meta (G) | backlinks | → links ←)

thenokian96.com

(LinkSearch: meta | en | es | de | fr | ru | zh | simple | c | d | Wikipedias: top 25 · 50 · major wikis · sc · gs)(Search: Google | en (G) | fr (G) | de (G) | meta (G) | backlinks | → links ←)

voipguides.blogspot.com

(LinkSearch: meta | en | es | de | fr | ru | zh | simple | c | d | Wikipedias: top 25 · 50 · major wikis · sc · gs)(Search: Google | en (G) | fr (G) | de (G) | meta (G) | backlinks | → links ←)

dishwashersreview.com

(LinkSearch: meta | en | es | de | fr | ru | zh | simple | c | d | Wikipedias: top 25 · 50 · major wikis · sc · gs)(Search: Google | en (G) | fr (G) | de (G) | meta (G) | backlinks | → links ←)

air-conditioner-review.com

(LinkSearch: meta | en | es | de | fr | ru | zh | simple | c | d | Wikipedias: top 25 · 50 · major wikis · sc · gs)(Search: Google | en (G) | fr (G) | de (G) | meta (G) | backlinks | → links ←)

Google Adsense IDs: 1625759401672787, 1756387327060627^[4]

Accounts

--A. B. ^(talk) 00:13, 11 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Done --A. B. ^(talk) 00:17, 11 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Proposed additions (Bot reported)

This section is for websites which have been added to multiple wikis as observed by a bot. It transcludes User:SpamReportBot/cw.

Items here will automatically be archived by the bot when they get stale.

Sysops, please change the LinkStatus template to closed when the report is dealt with. More information can be found at User:SpamReportBot/cw/about

These are automated reports, please check the records and the link thoroughly, it may be good links!

Please place suggestions on the automated reports in the discussion section.

List
User:SpamReportBot/cw/nakedafrica.net
User:SpamReportBot/cw/hnl-statistika.com
User:SpamReportBot/cw/therasmus-hellofasite.it
User:SpamReportBot/cw/prolococusanese.interfree.it
User:SpamReportBot/cw/rprece.interfree.it

Proposed removals

Latest comment: 16 years ago20 comments12 people in discussion

This section is for proposing that a website be unlisted; please add new entries at the bottom of the section. Remember to provide the specific URL blacklisted, links to the articles they are used in or useful to, and arguments in favour of unlisting. Completed requests will be marked as done or denied and archived. See also /recurring requests for repeatedly proposed (and refused) removals. The addition or removal of a link is not a vote, please do not bold the first words in statements.

islamhouse.com

I'm not familiar with the rest of their site, but they have a translation of the Qu'ran using the N'Ko alphabet that would be a useful addition to the External Links section of the article on Wikipedia:N'Ko. Can it be removed? --Wikipedia:User:SteveFoerster 72.83.183.30 15:48, 24 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

There was quite a bit of link placement from here (see here). Equally I guess going to en wp whitelist (w:MediaWiki talk:Spam-whitelist) is maybe the best thing to do. The question I would ask would be "are there reliable alternatives?" for what it's worth. Thanks --Herby ^{talk thyme} 14:06, 25 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

Closed as Not done nothing else heard --Herby ^{talk thyme} 09:53, 10 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

lyrikline.org

I found this sit blocked at the german wiki (wherein it has as projekt an own entrie!). it won the grimme-online-award for best website in the category culture, an is indeed the best source for lyrik i know webwide. it is blocked on meta-level, so I have to place my request for unblocking in here. would be greatful if you could unblock this site (I'm not the only user asking why this site is blocked). all the best 85.178.228.96 09:31, 27 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

Cross wiki link placement in January (here) led to this. You could seek whitelisting on de wiki I guess --Herby ^{talk thyme} 09:36, 27 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

Thank you for the hint. Why isn't it possible to unblack this site on meta? it is an international site, often the only source for translations or original texts in 40 or so languages - for the links leading always explicit to the article-related poet, I can't see any indication for spamlike behavior. The site lists about 400 Poets, so naturally the amount of links will be the like. What is the problem exactly? Thank you (and please excuse my clumsy English). 85.178.249.198 09:41, 5 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

This site is unlikely to be removed from the blacklist because of the excessive link placement as seen in the request (link is above). Thanks --Herby ^{talk thyme} 09:55, 10 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

hypergeertz.jku.at

I cannot find a reason for this site to be on this list! This is a scientific site that collects information from and about a anthropologist named Geertz and is hosted at the University of Linz in Austria (Johannes Kepler Universität = jku). Could you please remove this from the blacklist so we can include the link on the page about Clifford Geertz on de? --WiseWoman 15:25, 1 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Done - Link removed from the blacklist: There are no logs that I can find so I'm just unblacklisting it now. The reason for it is probably buried in the archives somewhere. Apparently I was the one to add it (as noted by herby), so apologies for doing so. —— nix eagle 18:07, 2 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

commonpurpose.org.uk

How this foundation's website ended up on the blacklist I'd be rather curious to be informed about. That it doesn't belong there is rather obvious. A recent administrative edit to Common Purpose UK on the English Wikipedia resulted in all links to the organization's own web site having to be removed. __meco 09:37, 4 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

It was added by user:VasilievVV after being picked up by the user:COIBot from the Wikipedia in Spanish. See Spam blacklist/Log and [5]. Hillgentleman 11:29, 4 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Someone abused links on this site in articles which are not related to that foundation itself. I commented it out, but I'll bring it back if there is some crosswiki spam or another abuse — VasilievVV 14:06, 4 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

The situation is worse. It was spammed by an IP belonging to Common Purpose, pushed strongly to pages where its use was not really necessery. I would suggest re-blacklisting, and adding a specific whitelist rule to local wikis. --Beetstra 17:03, 4 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Let me know when I can re-add the external links on the en:Wikipedia article about the organization itself. __meco 19:40, 4 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

OK, I was able to re-add them now, but do implement that whitelist thing if you put it back in, otherwise this article will have the same problem again. __meco 19:47, 4 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Common Purpose UK was also active in removing statements from the en:Common Purpose UK article: diff and diff. Meco, can you request a couple of specific links that need to be whitelisted on the whitelist on en:wikipedia? --Beetstra 09:38, 7 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

wikijob.co.uk

I have spent the last week editing links on company profiles in teh hope of adding links to this website for the benefit of readers. I now understand that Wikipedia is very keen to limit external links and I am consequently reading up about Wikipedia style guidelines - I never intended to overload the linking to wikijob on wikipedia, just provide useful links to users. In future I will not go so overboard - I respectfully request that wikijob is withdrawn from the blacklist and I agree to link to wikijob only when necessary or as is useful and only within the guidelines of wikipedia linking. Thank you - please let me know the outcome!

Not blacklisted here or on en wp as far as I can see - thanks --Herby ^{talk thyme} 10:04, 10 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

goascii.de

Hi, I saw, that goascii.de is blacklisted. Why? This is a good site and helped me a lot in programming. The site would be a good addition to article de:ASCII. Can we put it on the whitelist for de: ? Best Regards --havent yet a account here :) --91.55.115.129 10:20, 9 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

There was excessive link placement last year which led to this request. Thanks --Herby ^{talk thyme} 09:58, 10 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

I never saw Google Adwords on that page, but I used it only since a half year. Means this, that a page can never be whitelisted, after a spammer attacked wikipedia? --91.55.99.79 20:30, 10 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Troubleshooting and problems

Latest comment: 16 years ago3 comments2 people in discussion

This section is for comments related to problems with the blacklist (such as incorrect syntax or entries not being blocked), or problems saving a page because of a blacklisted link. This is not the section to request that an entry be unlisted (see Proposed removals above).

urlic.com

Don't really know why this was added, but it's blocking a legitimate site on srwiki: paundurlic.com. Is there any way to exempt this site? --FiLiP ¤ 09:39, 2 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Added \b around it — VasilievVV 14:46, 2 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Thanks, vvv --FiLiP ¤ 20:19, 2 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

Discussion

Latest comment: 16 years ago30 comments10 people in discussion

Help needed

Dear all. Eagle 101 and I have been working on bots in the spam IRC channels (see #wikipedia-spam-t for talking, people there will be able to steer you to the other channels; #wikipedia-en-spam and #cvn-sw-spam). The bots are now capable of real-time cross wiki spam detection (and soon that will also be reported). It would be nice if some of you would join us there, and help us cleaning etc. as this appears to go faster than we at first expect (and I do get the feeling the en wiki is not a good starting point for finding them! --Beetstra 21:35, 22 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

Something interesting for ya all to look at. I'm going to work on making each link go to subpages, and have them updated in a way that we can comment on the subpages as well, and bring the ones that need blacklisting to the meta blacklist. I can't have the bot automatically post here, we would flood this list out, so we will have to look at them all and then link to them. Hopefully we can get all the reports in one place, the coibot reports etc. Folks more or less simple crosswiki spam is easily detectable. :) —— Eagle101 ^{Need help?} 22:55, 22 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

Bah, you probably want to see the subpage at User:SpamReportBot/test ;) —— Eagle101 ^{Need help?} 23:00, 22 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

Addition to the COIBot reports

The lower list in the COIBot reports now have after each link four numbers between brackets (e.g. "www.example.com (0, 0, 0, 0)"):

first number, how many links did this user add (is the same after each link)
second number, how many times did this link get added to wikipedia (for as far as the linkwatcher database goes back)
third number, how many times did this user add this link
fourth number, to how many different wikipedia did this user add this link.

If the third number or the fourth number are high with respect to the first or the second, then that means that the user has at least a preference for using that link. Be careful with other statistics from these numbers (e.g. good user do add a lot of links). If there are more statistics that would be useful, please notify me, and I will have a look if I can get the info out of the database and report it. The bots are running on a new database, Eagle 101 is working on transferring the old data into this database so it becomes more reliable.

For those with access to IRC, there this data is available in real time. --Beetstra 10:40, 26 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

Log weirdness

I guess it may be a caching issue but for me the log appears to end at July 2007? Editing gave me March 2008 but it ain't there now for me? --Herby ^{talk thyme} 12:16, 26 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

I've rv'd myself for now but something is going wrong??? --Herby ^{talk thyme} 14:21, 26 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

Looks to me like you put the log entry in the right section, I'm re-adding it for ya. Did you purge? ~Kylu (u|t) 16:28, 26 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

Agreed in a sense but just purged the cache & it cuts off at July 2007 for me (I even tried making it #March 2008 and got de nada). Is it just me - it has been "one of those" days :) --Herby ^{talk thyme} 17:02, 26 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

I don't see past July 2007 either :\ Mønobi 17:11, 26 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

https://wikitech.leuksman.com/view/Server_admin_log#March_26 - issues with the rendering cluster again (which would keep &action=purge from working) ~Kylu (u|t) 17:40, 26 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

Did the full ff purge & still have the same as Monobi today. I am recording the entries that I cannot log at present but I guess if this is not resolved soon alternatives of some sort may be needed. If anyone else finds (or does not find) the same it would be good to hear. Thanks --Herby ^{talk thyme} 08:46, 27 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

Leave me the log entries you want added on my talk, and I'll add them for you if you'd like. I can get around this problem. :) ~Kylu (u|t) 14:12, 27 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

Ok, sorry for archiving this. It looks like we hit some sort of limit. My suggestion is to make a second log page for the time being and start logging from that while the original bug is reported to bugzilla. —— nix eagle 02:54, 30 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

Hopefully sorted for now via Spam blacklist/LogPre2008. Of course this is a wiki so if anyone disagrees....:) Cheers --Herby ^{talk thyme} 11:38, 30 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

Crosswiki spam detection

Ok folks we can more or less detect any crosswiki spam addition. Wander over to User:SpamReportBot/cw. This is a report of all links added by only a few people across more then 3 wikis. Each section here is its own subpage, which means you can transclude them on this page, link to the specific section, etc. You can also comment on the subpages if you have further notes etc, such as "this is not spam because of X". Depending on what we all think of it, I'll transclude User:SpamReportBot/cw on this page. —— Eagle101 ^{Need help?} 00:31, 29 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

I'll also note that it automatically removes old items. Items should stay up for 2-3 days before being removed by the bot. (that is if no more links are added). If good links consistently come up, I'll come up with a whitelist mechanism that we can add links to if we deem the additions ok and we don't want to see the additions there. Please suggest improvements on how the bot reports. —— Eagle101 ^{Need help?} 01:30, 29 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

I started to blacklist a number of these and then stopped when I noticed the blacklist log is acting seriously weird. --A. B. ^(talk) 02:21, 30 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

Alright, thanks for your work. I'm going to continue to work on the bot and the algorithm being used, so noting false hits is important. The major one seems to be knowing accounts that edit a lot. I'll work on a fix to that tomorrow, I'm hitting the sack tonight. —— nix eagle 03:06, 30 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

Once again, Wikipedia is a better quality project because of hardworking and conscientious editors.--Hu12 13:50, 4 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

XRumer spam

Well, anyone who is involved in crosswiki spam, has at some point seen Xrummer (is the best!) spam. Now he hotlinks a thumbnail for his program, as seen on [6]. Code he's using:

X-Rumer is the BEST! 
 
<img>http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/6b/XRumer_screenshot.gif/200px-XRumer_screenshot.gif</img>

So I added the following line: \bupload\.wikimedia\.org\/.*XRumer_screenshot\.gif\b to blacklist all links to possible thumbnail sizes. although I don't know if I did it properly (and the logging system used here confuses me). So, could anyone here review if I did it properly? es:Drini 19:07, 28 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

That works. I just tried it out. (adding the link that is). —— Eagle101 ^{Need help?} 01:25, 29 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

I deleted the pic on enwiki, btw, but am told that it'll be a while before that link is purged. If it's a huge problem, we can request that a shell user delete the file manually, but... ~Kylu (u|t) 22:13, 1 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

SpamReportBot/cw feedback

First item: after a lot of checking, I went through and made comments in each section as to which bot-reported domains needed blacklisting and which looked legit. When I was all done, I saw that none of my edits "stuck" -- it was if I'd never made them.. This must have something to do with the fact that these reports are transcluded. Then I went and blacklisted 13 domains; afterward I saw others had also blacklisted some of the same links, so there was some wasted effort. Conclusion: we very much need a way to mark up these reports so we don't duplicate each others' efforts.

In lieu of marking each report, here's my feedback on some of the domains reported so far:

I blacklisted these:
- tremulous.net.ru
- logosphera.com
- vidiac.com
- yarakweb.com
- img352.imageshack.us
- ayvalikda.com
- sarimsaklida.com
- worldmapfinder.com
- cundadan.com
- bikerosario.com.ar
- alfpoker.com
- karvinsko.eu
- yarak.co.uk

Links added to these sites looked legitimate:
- wikilivres.info
- unwto.org
- en.pwa.co.th
- villatuelda.es

Some others still need evaluation

All in all, SpamReportBot/cw looks like a very powerful, useful tool. --A. B. ^(talk) 03:28, 30 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

OK, I just figured out that if I post my comments in the bot report sections above the line that says "", then they'll show up. I don't know if it's a good idea to do this, however -- will it screw up the bot or the transclusion? --A. B. ^(talk) 03:36, 30 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

The work of the bot is awesome & deserves both thanks & discussion. There seems a few issues that need addressing such as what to look at, logging etc & it would be good to see discussion here. I feel that there may be a case for listing all bot generated sites because the behaviour is "spammy". However I also think because it is bot generated and there will likely have been no warnings, that entries can & should be removed after some sensible interaction has taken place. I am well aware that others here would not share my views so I will substantially reduce my activity on this page (& Meta).

The bot - while excellent - has generated far more work that I have time for and so I will just look at dealing with the request from the people who make requests here & who I've got to know & trust if I am around. Given the vast number of admins on Meta this should not cause any problems - however Meta seems to attract many people who want be admins but are not inclined to do any of the work. If I am around I'll help but my time is short & there is much to do on Commons. Thanks --Herby ^{talk thyme} 12:25, 30 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

You do raise a valid point, as far as no warnings. Thankfully we just turned a major corner. We now have the ability to detect most spammy behavior. However now that detection and reversion is easier (SUL), we may want to evaluate what we do in response to those that add links many times.

When I first started helping in this effort, we were shooting in the dark. There was no COIBot reports, irc feeds, the crosswiki linksearch tool, or any sort of monitoring of more then one wiki at a time... thus detecting spam across multiple wikis was... pardon my language, damned hard! As such we blacklisted all we could find. This type of spam was and is sneaky as it bypasses most community's detection mechanism. Its only one link to folks on the various wikis, but added togather its across 5 or more!

Now that we have a detection mechanism, one that we can adopt should the behavior of spammers change significantly, we need to ask ourselves, should we blacklist with the same vigor? Should we attempt to assume good faith of ones that appear to us to be accidental, or in good faith? How do we go about warning someone that may never see the warning, or be unable to read the language in which the warning is placed in? In addition, we must remain ever wary of en:Joe jobs.

These are questions that need to be answered, and Herbythyme is right on the ball hinting at these here and elsewhere. Its perfectly valid to keep our response the same as it always was, but this may not be the best course of action. I don't know for sure what is. Please discuss your thoughts to this below my comment, or in its own section. :) —— nix eagle 18:20, 30 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

Someone will have to remove the blacklisted links from the wikis. Can that be done by a bot and/or can a bot be set up to give information on the affected wikis about where the blacklisted links are, so the local community can remove the links themselves? Removing spam is a tedious task, and sometimes one feels one is as much infringing with the local communities as is any spammer. If possible the local communities should evaluate the blacklisted links themselves, and remove the ones they don't want, and either strip or whitelist the others. I realize that might not be very realistic. For Commons there is the CommonsTicker and CommonsDelinker. Is it possible to handle the blacklisted links in a similar way? --Jorunn 13:49, 30 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

Possibly it could be done by bot... I can work on writing this if its wanted. SUL will make things much easier. I usually just click the diff links and click undo on each of the ones I blacklist. In otherwords I don't blacklist things I'm not willing to undo the link additions to. —— nix eagle 17:54, 30 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

A.B. - As far as your edits not sticking on the transcluded pages... can you show me an example? I can't fix it unless I can see an example of the problem. :S It will be useful down the road to have the blacklisted or not portion in the page itself, so this should work without any problems... —— nix eagle 18:03, 30 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

Replying to myself again: AB - "", posting above that means the bot will overwrite your comments should there be future link additions from that domain.

Also, A.B. and everyone else interested, I just modified the algorithm to remove 2 out of 4 identified false hits. I'll look at the other two, but I'd like to see this run for a day or so and see what crops up. Please do attempt to comment on the actual sub pages. —— nix eagle 19:31, 30 March 2008 (UTC)Reply