[pydotorg-www] Python Wiki Spam

[M.-A. Lemburg]

On 20.03.2013 09:44, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
> On 19.03.2013 09:14, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
>> On 18.03.2013 19:58, Paul Boddie wrote:
>>> On Monday 18 March 2013 19:00:37 Radomir Dopieralski wrote:
>>>> On Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 6:51 PM, Paul Boddie <paul at boddie.org.uk> wrote:
>>>>> Hello,
>>>>>
>>>>> We're getting a fair amount of spam on the Python Wiki. Can someone with
>>>>> administrative privileges check that the textcha feature is enabled and
>>>>> has been given a set of effective questions?
>>>>
>>>> You can see that it is enabled by visiting this link:
>>>> http://wiki.python.org/moin/FrontPage?action=newaccount
>>>>
>>>> (make sure you are logged out)
>>>>
>>>> As for the questions, I'm open to suggestions.
>>>
>>> I don't think "How many words are in this question?" is really setting the bar 
>>> very high for spammers. Textcha questions are supposed to retain the context 
>>> of the site on which they are placed so that bulk spamming cannot just scrape 
>>> the question and serve it up to someone on some other site. This means that 
>>> we should be asking Python-related questions, not simple "Are you human?" 
>>> questions that ceased to be effective about ten years ago.
>>
>> Reimar is currently running a test on the Jython wiki. He marked
>> "http" as bad content, which results in all edits including that
>> word to get rejected.
>>
>> At least on the Jython wiki, this has apparently stopped the spam
>> pages from getting created:
>>
>> http://wiki.python.org/jython/RecentChanges
>>
>> It's not a permanent solution, though, since it prevents adding
>> links to pages.
> 
> The experiment has resulted in the spam being stopped. Unfortunately,
> it also prohibited any edits of pages with links on them - even
> by regular wiki users.
> 
> I've removed the http again and will add a new set of textchas
> for now.

Within a few minutes of removing the "http", the spam started
rolling in again.

I hope the new textchas will raise the bar a bit.

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
PSF Vice Chairman