BattleTechWiki:SPAM

Summary

This page attempts to detail all of the current anti-SPAM measures the BattleTechWiki has in place, their effectiveness, and so on. BTW SPAM has increased over time, and new anti-SPAM techniques are needed periodically to keep SPAM on the wiki under control.

Current Measures

Measure	Status	Implemented	Configuration	Effectiveness	Log	Notes
$wgEnableSorbs	Enabled	~2008	$wgEnableSorbs = true	Unknown	Unavailable	No way to track effectiveness. Officially deprecated in favor of $wgEnableDnsBlacklist, but we still have enabled
$wgEnableDnsBlacklist	Enabled	10/18/2012	$wgEnableDnsBlacklist = true $wgDnsBlacklistUrls = array(...): http.dnsbl.sorbs.net web.dnsbl.sorbs.net sbl.spamhaus.org xbl.spamhaus.org opm.tornevall.org truncate.gbudb.net ircbl.ahbl.org dnsbl.proxybl.org	Unknown	Unavailable	No way to track effectiveness. Replaces $wgEnableSorbs Might block legitimate users who use proxies
SimpleAntiSpam	Enabled	12/2011	n/a	Unknown	Available to Admins	Enabled logging 10/2012 to track effectiveness
SpamBlacklist	Enabled	12/2011	$wgSpamBlacklistFiles = array(...): http ://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Spam_blacklist http ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist	Unknown	Available to Admins	Enabled logging 10/2012 to track effectiveness
CommentSpammer	Enabled	02/2012	n/a	~30 SPAMs/day	Log
ConfirmEdit / QuestyCaptcha	Enabled	02/2012	Enabled for edits and new users	Unknown	Available to Admins	Enabled logging 10/2012 to track effectiveness
BadBehavior	Enabled	10/18/2012	n/a	Unknown	Available to Admins	Will check effectiveness after one month
Block China IP Addresses	Enabled	10/22/2012	n/a	Unknown	n/a	Will check effectiveness after one month

Other Measures

Other possible options, not currently enabled:

• AbuseFilter
  • Unknown if it will be useful Nicjansma (talk) 14:18, 18 October 2012 (PDT)
• TitleBlacklist
  • Unknown how useful it will be Nicjansma (talk) 14:18, 18 October 2012 (PDT)
• $wgEmailConfirmToEdit
  • Would require visitors to supply a valid email before they can edit pages Nicjansma (talk) 20:24, 18 October 2012 (PDT)
• AkismetKlik
  • Unknown how helpful it will be Nicjansma (talk) 20:24, 18 October 2012 (PDT)
• ConfirmAccount
  • Would require manual account confirmation Nicjansma (talk) 20:24, 18 October 2012 (PDT)

Tools

• User Merge and Delete can be used to clean up (i.e. remove) SPAM accounts. Simply put the SPAM account's name in the Old user field, and leave the New user field blank. The SPAM account will be merged into the Anonymous user, including all of their pages and edits.
  • If you hit a database error when using the extension, please let Nicjansma know. A bug with the Merge and Delete extension was fixed on 2012/10/17 for errors with the text "wl_user" and "PRIMARY key 0" in them, but there may be others.

Log

• 2008: $wgEnableSorbs enabled
• 2008: ConfirmEdit enabled
• 2009/10/07: ReCaptcha used for ConfirmEdit
• 2011/12/19: SimpleAntiSpam enabled
• 2011/12/19: SpamBlacklist enabled
• 2012/02/11: QuestyCaptcha used for ConfirmEdit
• 2012/02/11: CommentSpammer enabled
• 2012/08/10: Additional QuestyCaptcha questions added
• 2012/10/18: $wgEnableDnsBlacklist enabled
• 2012/10/18: BadBehavior enabled
• 2012/10/18: This page created
• 2012/10/22: Blocked all Chinese IP addresses

Resources

MediaWiki articles on SPAM control:

• Combating SPAM
• Proxy blocking
• Anti-Spam Features
• Comparison of DNS Blacklists
• MediaWiki Spam Management Extensions

Other articles on MediaWiki SPAM control:

• DanBp.org
• IguanaSuicide.net
• Blocking China IP addresses