Thread Subject: Re: Wiki is officially under spam attack

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From: Jared Smith
Date: Mon, Oct 23 2006 1:20 PM

On 10/23/06, Bailey Bruce < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
> I note the site was host to some on-line gambling links over the week end.
> Thanks Jared for cleaning up. Do we need to change any of our operating
> procedures?

This was one user that added a few spam links - not really an attack,
I'd say. I've been keeping an eye on things, but this one snuck past
me. With the wiki software, the fix was made in one click and the user
blocked in another click.

I don't think we need to change our operating procedures at all. I
don't see that anything is broken. Spam is a fact of life and locking
the wiki down simply make more work for us and will probably do little
to stop spam anyways. I would point out that around 1/3 of the great
contributions we have had thus far on the wiki are from folks not on
the committee. Locking down registration defeats the purpose of the
wiki, limits the collaboration, and is difficult to do on the
administrative side. (Am I starting to sound like a broken record?)

I have implemented several features that will make spamming much more
difficult, but it is not possible to eradicate it in a relatively open
system. But the more folks we have that are using the wiki, the more
likely it is that any spam will be erased quickly.

Jared Smith
NCDAE.org

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