Developer discussion for Creative Commons technology and tools

[Mike Linksvayer <ml AT gondwanaland.com>]

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
>