'Ethical Spammers' Spamming up the wiki.

Maelstrom · Post by **Maelstrom** » 31 Oct 2005, 07:37

In the last 12 hours, the Wiki has been hit by automated spammers. THey call themselfs the 'Ethical Spammer Group'. They are 'Ethical' because they dont actually remove the information in the page, rather they just add the links in to the page in an invisible <div> box. They linked to the usual 'Free Medications without a perscription' junk.

Examples of their Spam:
http://taspring.clan-sy.com/w/index.php ... &rcid=1608
http://taspring.clan-sy.com/w/index.php ... &rcid=1604
http://taspring.clan-sy.com/w/index.php ... oldid=1383

Their IP address was 86.120.197.66

Thanks to Sinbadev and an annonymous IP address (Possibly Sinbadev again) for cleaning it up.

Also, can I request that this IP address is baned, to stop this happening again.

SinbadEV · Post by **SinbadEV** » 31 Oct 2005, 07:57

one of them wasn't me...

[K.B.] Napalm Cobra · Post by **[K.B.] Napalm Cobra** » 31 Oct 2005, 08:40

Another good reason to make them registration only.

SwiftSpear · Post by **SwiftSpear** » 31 Oct 2005, 09:14

adding clutter to out of date wiki's is ethical how?

Post by **Tim Blokdijk** » 31 Oct 2005, 12:10

SinbadEV wrote:one of them wasn't me...

I'm 80.56.144.185 don't alway's log in.

Maelstrom · Post by **Maelstrom** » 31 Oct 2005, 13:14

Ah ok. Didnt know who it was. Just thought it might have been Sinbadev cause, he did some of it to. Thanks for cleaning it up!

FizWizz · Post by **FizWizz** » 31 Oct 2005, 18:04

spamming 'cheap drugs without prescriptions' scams are ethical how?

Maelstrom · Post by **Maelstrom** » 01 Nov 2005, 05:46

They were back again. This time, as well as posting links to the drugs, they also posted addresses to what I assume was porn. Different IP this time, (85.186.34.131), however they seem to only target the Main Page, Current Events, and Help:Contents pages. Perhaps these can be locked somehow, with only autorised users able to edit them?

[K.B.] Napalm Cobra · Post by **[K.B.] Napalm Cobra** » 01 Nov 2005, 08:58

Pr0n? I a stand corrected and demand no logins required!

clericvash · Post by **clericvash** » 01 Nov 2005, 14:04

[K.B.] Napalm Cobra wrote:Pr0n? I a stand corrected and demand no logins required!

lol someone had to...wey for pr0n...WEY!!!!

Post by **Fnordia** » 01 Nov 2005, 16:52

Ok, I switched the wiki to only allow editing by registered users, can let it stay like that for a while I guess.

Perhaps I could also bestow some admin powers to a few users to make it easier to undo stuff like this. The rollback feature is quite handy but since I'm the only one who uses it I guess it requires some extra privilegies? :)

SinbadEV · Post by **SinbadEV** » 01 Nov 2005, 19:51

nah... I just find it safer to manually edit them... more time consuming but I get a chance to double check the content while I'm at it... most real contributers are registered anyways at this point and it will help cause sometimes I update while I have forgotted to log-in.

Maelstrom · Post by **Maelstrom** » 02 Nov 2005, 05:26

Granting some people admin would be helpful though. Just to clean things up. There are LOTS of usless pages that have basicly no content, that would be good candidates for deletion. And there are about 4 pages all redirecting to the 'Create maps' page, which seems a little usless to me. So, some users with upgraded powers in the wiki would be a very good idea, as long as they are sensible.

Post by **Fnordia** » 03 Nov 2005, 22:44

Well since it looks like you two contribute and fix stuff regularly in the wiki I can give you sysop privilegies if you want.

SinbadEV · Post by **SinbadEV** » 03 Nov 2005, 22:53

I'm happy to be sysop as long as I'm not expected to do more just because I can. (I check the recent changes everyday anyways, I might as well be one right?)

edit: and trust worthy too... I always forget that kind of thing.

Caydr · Post by **Caydr** » 04 Nov 2005, 00:36

Registration is a good first step, but what prevents these hosers from just registering AND THEN adding all their spam?

Dwarden · Post by **Dwarden** » 04 Nov 2005, 01:28

registration need validation code to prevent bot autoregistering
and email validation system after ...

also link registration to forum registration ... so u need be registered on both to get it work ... that blocks bots and they got tired do it manually aftersome time ...

also ... there is new phpBB version out and even after that i got info there is new security hole affecting new build too ... great

Maelstrom · Post by **Maelstrom** » 04 Nov 2005, 05:33

Id be happy to have more power. I wont do to much more, but the ABILITY to do more will be welcome.

And as for bots having to register to post, that really does put a dent in the amount of spam we will get. And if a bot can register, log in THEN post, then I think they deserve to leave spam, just cause of the amount of effort that would have been needed to do that.

Dwarden · Post by **Dwarden** » 04 Nov 2005, 08:37

what about forum account with more than 10-25 posts gets permission edit wiki ...

so u get double registration with generated code check + email validation + forum posting ... owned :)

Maelstrom · Post by **Maelstrom** » 04 Nov 2005, 08:40

Do you have any idea how hard that would be to implement? Do you even know how these forums and the wiki work? I think that combining the login info of the two would be really hard, and im certain the SY's have better things to do. The current system is fine. If bots start spamming it up, then i guess some of these options might be considered. But untill then, going that far is not really neccesary.

Spring RTS Engine

'Ethical Spammers' Spamming up the wiki.

'Ethical Spammers' Spamming up the wiki.