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cc-devel - Re: [cc-devel] Spamlinks on the CC wiki

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  • From: Dan Mills <dan AT creativecommons.org>
  • To: Mike Linksvayer <ml AT gondwanaland.com>
  • Cc: "cc-devel AT lists.ibiblio.org" <cc-devel AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [cc-devel] Spamlinks on the CC wiki
  • Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 17:29:42 -0800

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 <ml AT gondwanaland.com> wrote:
> 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@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
>
> On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 5:14 AM, BjornW <burobjorn AT gmail.com> wrote:
>> 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
>>
>> On 11-11-13 19:18, Maarten Zeinstra wrote:
>>> 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
>>> <mailto:mz AT kl.nl>> wrote:
>>> > 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
>>> >
>>> > --
>>> > Kennisland | www.kennisland.nl <http://www.kennisland.nl> | t
>>> +31205756720 <tel:%2B31205756720> | m +31643053919
>>> <tel:%2B31643053919> | @mzeinstra
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > On 11 Nov 2013, at 12:36 , BjornW <burobjorn AT gmail.com
>>> <mailto:burobjorn AT gmail.com>> wrote:
>>> >
>>> >> 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.
>>> >>
>>> >> 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
>>
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