[Python-Dev] comments vs spam in PyPI [was: eggs now mandatory for pypi?]

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Antoine Pitrou writes:
 > Guido van Rossum <guido <at> python.org> writes:
 > > 
 > > There are plenty of things we
 > > can learn about fighting spam and other forms of vandalism from other
 > > areas of the social web, including our very own wiki, and other wikis
 > > (WikiPedia survives despite spam).
 > 
 > Doesn't Wikipedia have a lot of human eyes watching, however?

Yes.  In fact Wikipedia's real issue is not spam, but edit wars.  It
just happens that the same people who are willing to watch to make
sure that nobody "corrects" the facts consider spam damage, too, and
they get rid of it as part of their mission.

What this means is that the most active parts of the Wikipedia are
also quickly policed.  What's left is much less attractive for
spammers, and there are a number of volunteers willing to respond
fairly promptly to reports of spam in articles that nobody currently
considers "theirs".

I think it could probably be adapted to Python community scale, but it
would probably require new mechanisms (spam reporting and possibly
cleaning -- in Wikipedia you hit the revert button, choose a known
good version, and you're done) in PyPI, and recruitment of volunteers
to take care of spam to products currently not "owned".

IMO it would be better to design developer-specific mechanisms rather
than a generic commenting vehicle, cf. Fred Drake's thinking.