Information:Spam

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It is neither an encyclopedia article nor one of BattleTechWiki's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of BattleTechWiki's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect differing levels of consensus and vetting.

Summary[edit]

This page attempts to detail all of the current anti-SPAM measures the BattleTechWiki has in place, their effectiveness, and so on.

BattleTechWiki SPAM has increased over time, and new anti-SPAM techniques are needed periodically to keep SPAM on the wiki under control.

Measure	Status	Implemented	Configuration	Effectiveness	Log	Notes
`$wgEnableSorbs`	(removed)	~2008	`$wgEnableSorbs = true`	Unknown	Unavailable	Was removed in MediaWiki 1.24.0, deprecated in favor of `$wgEnableDnsBlacklist`
`$wgEnableDnsBlacklist`	Enabled	10/2012	`$wgEnableDnsBlacklist = true` `$wgDnsBlacklistUrls = array(...)`: ~~http.dnsbl.sorbs.net~~ ~~web.dnsbl.sorbs.net~~ ~~sbl.spamhaus.org~~ ~~xbl.spamhaus.org~~ opm.tornevall.org ~~truncate.gbudb.net~~ ~~dnsbl.proxybl.org~~	>1000/day	Available to Admins	Replaces `$wgEnableSorbs` Might block legitimate users who use proxies sorbs.net, gbudb.net, proxybl.org removed in 2023 (all offline) spamhaus.org disabled on 7/30/2025 after DQS trial expired.
~~SimpleAntiSpam~~	(removed)	12/2011	n/a	< 1/day	Available to Admins	Was merged into MediaWiki core in 1.22.0+
SpamBlacklist	Enabled	12/2011	`$wgBlacklistSettings = ...`: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Spam_blacklist http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist	~5/day	Available to Admins
~~CommentSpammer~~	(removed)	02/2012	n/a	< 1/day	Log	Extension no longer works in 2016+
ConfirmEdit (QuestyCaptcha)	Enabled	05/2013	Enabled for edits and new users	10/day	Available to Admins
~~BadBehavior~~	(removed)	10/2012	n/a	~2500 actions/day	Available to Admins	Was removed in 2017 as it was breaking caching in some cases
Block of China IP Addresses	Enabled	10/2012	n/a	~3000 IPs/day	Available to Admins
AbuseFilter	Enabled	02/2018	n/a	~20 day	Available to Admins

Other possible options, not currently enabled:

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)

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.

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
2013/05/01: Changed ConfirmEdit from QuestyCaptcha to AreYouAHuman
2021/02/15: $wgEnableSorbs removed from list, had been removed in MW 1.24.0+
2021/02/15: SimpleAntiSpam removed from list, had been removed in MW 1.22.0+
2021/02/15: CommentSpammer removed from list, had not been working since 2016
2021/02/15: Bad Behavior removed from list, had been removed in 2017 due to breaking caching
2021/02/15: Abuse Filter added to list (was enabled in 2018)
2021/02/15: Switched from ReCaptcha to QuestyCaptcha
2023/09/01: Removed sorbs.net, gbudb.net, proxybl.org from $wgEnableDnsBlacklist
2025/08/13: Removed spamhaus.org from $wgEnableDnsBlacklist as DQS trial expired

MediaWiki articles on SPAM control:

Other articles on MediaWiki SPAM control: