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spam users

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Bernhard.Scheid at oeaw

Aug 1, 2012, 3:36 AM

Post #1 of 9 (408 views)
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spam users

Hi,

I am running a couple of relatively small academic Wikis mainly for educational uses at university. Thus there is relatively little traffic apart from course time. Nevertheless, some two years ago I noticed more and more spam and thus reduced editing rights first to registered users, then to users of a special group that need my personal acknowledgement. Now, in recent months there is an increasing number of new users (robots?) obviously attempting to write spam which they do not do but they are kind of spamming the lists of registered users. I could reduce the registration rights but on the other hand I want students to register freely in order to obtain their editing permissions. Is there a decent way to detect and prevent harmful would-be spammers from setting up an account without preventing that option for serious users?

Best

Bernhard

***************

Dr. Bernhard Scheid

Austrian Academy of Sciences
Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia

Apostelgasse 23
1030 Vienna, Austria

Tel.: +43-1-51581 6424
E-mail: bernhard.scheid [at] oeaw

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amir.aharoni at mail

Aug 1, 2012, 3:41 AM

Post #2 of 9 (380 views)
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Re: spam users [In reply to]

2012/8/1 Scheid, Bernhard <Bernhard.Scheid [at] oeaw>:
> Hi,
>
> I am running a couple of relatively small academic Wikis mainly for educational uses at university. Thus there is relatively little traffic apart from course time. Nevertheless, some two years ago I noticed more and more spam and thus reduced editing rights first to registered users, then to users of a special group that need my personal acknowledgement. Now, in recent months there is an increasing number of new users (robots?) obviously attempting to write spam which they do not do but they are kind of spamming the lists of registered users. I could reduce the registration rights but on the other hand I want students to register freely in order to obtain their editing permissions. Is there a decent way to detect and prevent harmful would-be spammers from setting up an account without preventing that option for serious users?

Hallo,

Try this page:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Combating_spam

--
Amir Elisha Aharoni Â· ×Ö¸×žÖ´×™×¨ ×Ö±×œÖ´×™×©×Ö¸×¢ ×Ö·×”Ö²×¨×•Ö¹× Ö´×™
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I want to live in peace.â€ â€“ T. Mooreâ€¬

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2007 at gmaskfx

Aug 1, 2012, 6:29 AM

Post #3 of 9 (378 views)
Permalink

Re: spam users [In reply to]

Bernhard ,

I have found questycaptcha to be the most successful at blocking bots from adding users. Basically it asks a question such as "Where is Tokyo?" and the answer is "Japan". This has been working pretty well but lately I have noticed that some bots are still getting through so I might need to change my question.

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:QuestyCaptcha

Adrian

________________________________
From: "Scheid, Bernhard" <Bernhard.Scheid [at] oeaw>
To: "mediawiki-l [at] lists" <mediawiki-l [at] lists>
Sent: Wednesday, August 1, 2012 3:36 AM
Subject: [MediaWiki-l] spam users

Hi,

I am running a couple of relatively small academic Wikis mainly for educational uses at university. Thus there is relatively little traffic apart from course time. Nevertheless, some two years ago I noticed more and more spam and thus reduced editing rights first to registered users, then to users of a special group that need my personal acknowledgement. Now, in recent months there is an increasing number of new users (robots?) obviously attempting to write spam which they do not do but they are kind of spamming the lists of registered users. I could reduce the registration rights but on the other hand I want students to register freely in order to obtain their editing permissions. Is there a decent way to detect and prevent harmful would-be spammers from setting up an account without preventing that option for serious users?

Best

Bernhard

***************

Dr. Bernhard Scheid

Austrian Academy of Sciences
Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia

Apostelgasse 23
1030 Vienna, Austria

Tel.: +43-1-51581 6424
E-mail: bernhard.scheid [at] oeaw

_______________________________________________
MediaWiki-l mailing list
MediaWiki-l [at] lists
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
_______________________________________________
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MediaWiki-l [at] lists
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Bernhard.Scheid at oeaw

Aug 1, 2012, 8:30 AM

Post #4 of 9 (381 views)
Permalink

Re: spam users [In reply to]

Many thanks!

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: mediawiki-l-bounces [at] lists [mailto:mediawiki-l-bounces [at] lists] Im Auftrag von 2007 [at] gmaskfx
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 1. August 2012 15:30
An: MediaWiki announcements and site admin list
Betreff: Re: [MediaWiki-l] spam users

Bernhard ,

I have found questycaptcha to be the most successful at blocking bots from adding users. Basically it asks a question such as "Where is Tokyo?" and the answer is "Japan". This has been working pretty well but lately I have noticed that some bots are still getting through so I might need to change my question.

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:QuestyCaptcha

Adrian

________________________________
From: "Scheid, Bernhard" <Bernhard.Scheid [at] oeaw>
To: "mediawiki-l [at] lists" <mediawiki-l [at] lists>
Sent: Wednesday, August 1, 2012 3:36 AM
Subject: [MediaWiki-l] spam users

Hi,

I am running a couple of relatively small academic Wikis mainly for educational uses at university. Thus there is relatively little traffic apart from course time. Nevertheless, some two years ago I noticed more and more spam and thus reduced editing rights first to registered users, then to users of a special group that need my personal acknowledgement. Now, in recent months there is an increasing number of new users (robots?) obviously attempting to write spam which they do not do but they are kind of spamming the lists of registered users. I could reduce the registration rights but on the other hand I want students to register freely in order to obtain their editing permissions. Is there a decent way to detect and prevent harmful would-be spammers from setting up an account without preventing that option for serious users?

Best

Bernhard

***************

Dr. Bernhard Scheid

Austrian Academy of Sciences
Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia

Apostelgasse 23
1030 Vienna, Austria

Tel.: +43-1-51581 6424
E-mail: bernhard.scheid [at] oeaw

_______________________________________________
MediaWiki-l mailing list
MediaWiki-l [at] lists
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
_______________________________________________
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MediaWiki-l [at] lists
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luis at dantas

Aug 1, 2012, 8:59 AM

Post #5 of 9 (386 views)
Permalink

Re: spam users [In reply to]

I had good results with QueryCaptcha as well. Do you have experience with
it? I wonder how it compares with QuestyCaptcha.

On Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 10:29 AM, 2007 [at] gmaskfx <2007 [at] gmaskfx> wrote:

> Bernhard ,
>
>
> I have found questycaptcha to be the most successful at blocking
> bots from adding users. Basically it asks a question such as "Where is
> Tokyo?" and the answer is "Japan". This has been working pretty well but
> lately I have noticed that some bots are still getting through so I might
> need to change my question.
>
> http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:QuestyCaptcha
>
>
> Adrian
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: "Scheid, Bernhard" <Bernhard.Scheid [at] oeaw>
> To: "mediawiki-l [at] lists" <mediawiki-l [at] lists>
> Sent: Wednesday, August 1, 2012 3:36 AM
> Subject: [MediaWiki-l] spam users
>
> Hi,
>
> I am running a couple of relatively small academic Wikis mainly for
> educational uses at university. Thus there is relatively little traffic
> apart from course time. Nevertheless, some two years ago I noticed more and
> more spam and thus reduced editing rights first to registered users, then
> to users of a special group that need my personal acknowledgement. Now, in
> recent months there is an increasing number of new users (robots?)
> obviously attempting to write spam which they do not do but they are kind
> of spamming the lists of registered users. I could reduce the registration
> rights but on the other hand I want students to register freely in order
> to obtain their editing permissions. Is there a decent way to detect and
> prevent harmful would-be spammers from setting up an account without
> preventing that option for serious users?
>
> Best
>
> Bernhard
>
>
> ***************
>
> Dr. Bernhard Scheid
>
> Austrian Academy of Sciences
> Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia
>
> Apostelgasse 23
> 1030 Vienna, Austria
>
> Tel.: +43-1-51581 6424
> E-mail: bernhard.scheid [at] oeaw
>
> _______________________________________________
> MediaWiki-l mailing list
> MediaWiki-l [at] lists
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
> _______________________________________________
> MediaWiki-l mailing list
> MediaWiki-l [at] lists
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
>

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Hullen at t-online

Aug 1, 2012, 9:44 AM

Post #6 of 9 (372 views)
Permalink

Re: spam users [In reply to]

Hallo, Bernhard,

Du meintest am 01.08.12:

> I am running a couple of relatively small academic Wikis mainly for
> educational uses at university. Thus there is relatively little
> traffic apart from course time. Nevertheless, some two years ago I
> noticed more and more spam and thus reduced editing rights first to
> registered users, then to users of a special group that need my
> personal acknowledgement. Now, in recent months there is an
> increasing number of new users (robots?) obviously attempting to
> write spam which they do not do but they are kind of spamming the
> lists of registered users.

Yes - I know these nasty robots ...

> I could reduce the registration rights but
> on the other hand I want students to register freely in order to
> obtain their editing permissions. Is there a decent way to detect and
> prevent harmful would-be spammers from setting up an account without
> preventing that option for serious users?

Captcha: didn't work reliable (may be due to my external provider).

Then I added the following lines

# reduzieren; 29.5.12

$wgGroupPermissions['*']['edit'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['user']['edit'] = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['edit'] = true;

#
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['createpage'] = false;
# $wgGroupPermissions['user']['createpage'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['user']['createpage'] = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['autoconfirmed']['createpage'] = true;
$wgAutoConfirmAge = 86400 * 4; # 4 Tage oder aelter
#
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['createaccount'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['user']['createaccount'] = true;
#

to "LocalSettings.php"; I have (as sysop/bureaucrat) to create an
account for every allowed user, but that's (in my case) much less work
than cleaning the Wiki every day.

Maybe these lines can be elaborated ...

And with a lot of hope and ccordination it may be possible to change the
"createaccount" line for an hour or so and all allowed users have to
create their account within that time.

Viele Gruesse!
Helmut

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fgrose at gmail

Aug 1, 2012, 11:01 AM

Post #7 of 9 (387 views)
Permalink

Re: spam users [In reply to]

On Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 12:44 PM, Helmut Hullen <Hullen [at] t-online> wrote:

> Hallo, Bernhard,
>
> Du meintest am 01.08.12:
>
> > I am running a couple of relatively small academic Wikis mainly for
> > educational uses at university. Thus there is relatively little
> > traffic apart from course time. Nevertheless, some two years ago I
> > noticed more and more spam and thus reduced editing rights first to
> > registered users, then to users of a special group that need my
> > personal acknowledgement. Now, in recent months there is an
> > increasing number of new users (robots?) obviously attempting to
> > write spam which they do not do but they are kind of spamming the
> > lists of registered users.
>
> Yes - I know these nasty robots ...
>
> > I could reduce the registration rights but
> > on the other hand I want students to register freely in order to
> > obtain their editing permissions. Is there a decent way to detect and
> > prevent harmful would-be spammers from setting up an account without
> > preventing that option for serious users?
>
> Captcha: didn't work reliable (may be due to my external provider).
>
> Then I added the following lines
>
> # reduzieren; 29.5.12
>
> $wgGroupPermissions['*']['edit'] = false;
> $wgGroupPermissions['user']['edit'] = true;
> $wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['edit'] = true;
>
> #
> $wgGroupPermissions['*']['createpage'] = false;
> # $wgGroupPermissions['user']['createpage'] = false;
> $wgGroupPermissions['user']['createpage'] = true;
> $wgGroupPermissions['autoconfirmed']['createpage'] = true;
> $wgAutoConfirmAge = 86400 * 4; # 4 Tage oder aelter
> #
> $wgGroupPermissions['*']['createaccount'] = false;
> $wgGroupPermissions['user']['createaccount'] = true;
> #
>
> to "LocalSettings.php"; I have (as sysop/bureaucrat) to create an
> account for every allowed user, but that's (in my case) much less work
> than cleaning the Wiki every day.
>
> Maybe these lines can be elaborated ...
>
> And with a lot of hope and ccordination it may be possible to change the
> "createaccount" line for an hour or so and all allowed users have to
> create their account within that time.
>
> Viele Gruesse!
> Helmut

New account spam can be largely avoided by disabling account creation for
new users and transferring authentication to a service such as
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:OpenID

New account creation is disabled with this line in LocalSettings.php:

$wgGroupPermissions['*']['createaccount'] = false;

The [[MediaWiki:Loginprompt]] can be updated from its default value to
suggest that new users create accounts with an OpenID. Current accounts are
unaffected, and new users often already have an account with one of the
OpenID providers,

http://openid.net/get-an-openid/

Also reported here:

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Combating_spam#Restrict_editing

--Fred
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annew at kde

Aug 1, 2012, 11:28 AM

Post #8 of 9 (375 views)
Permalink

Re: spam users [In reply to]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On 01/08/12 11:36, Scheid, Bernhard wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am running a couple of relatively small academic Wikis mainly for
> educational uses at university. Thus there is relatively little
> traffic apart from course time. Nevertheless, some two years ago I
> noticed more and more spam and thus reduced editing rights first to
> registered users, then to users of a special group that need my
> personal acknowledgement. Now, in recent months there is an
> increasing number of new users (robots?) obviously attempting to
> write spam which they do not do but they are kind of spamming the
> lists of registered users. I could reduce the registration rights
> but on the other hand I want students to register freely in order
> to obtain their editing permissions. Is there a decent way to
> detect and prevent harmful would-be spammers from setting up an
> account without preventing that option for serious users?
>
Determined human spammers are hard to beat, but fortunately not great
in numbers. Questy captcha is wonderful at shutting out the bots.
You can expect a massive reduction as soon as you have set your
questions. You just set questions that are simple to answer, often
based on what is on-screen at the time of registration. Bots can't
handle that.

Anne
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katkov.juriy at gmail

Aug 5, 2012, 3:59 PM

Post #9 of 9 (365 views)
Permalink

Re: spam users [In reply to]

Questy captcha is awesome but don't forget to change the questions from
time to time. Maybe you'll also find this article interesting, I wrote it
when there was much spam on semanticweb.org:
http://semanticweb.org/wiki/semanticweb.org:Fighting_spam
-----
Yury Katkov

On Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 10:28 PM, Anne Wilson <annew [at] kde> wrote:

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> On 01/08/12 11:36, Scheid, Bernhard wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I am running a couple of relatively small academic Wikis mainly for
> > educational uses at university. Thus there is relatively little
> > traffic apart from course time. Nevertheless, some two years ago I
> > noticed more and more spam and thus reduced editing rights first to
> > registered users, then to users of a special group that need my
> > personal acknowledgement. Now, in recent months there is an
> > increasing number of new users (robots?) obviously attempting to
> > write spam which they do not do but they are kind of spamming the
> > lists of registered users. I could reduce the registration rights
> > but on the other hand I want students to register freely in order
> > to obtain their editing permissions. Is there a decent way to
> > detect and prevent harmful would-be spammers from setting up an
> > account without preventing that option for serious users?
> >
> Determined human spammers are hard to beat, but fortunately not great
> in numbers. Questy captcha is wonderful at shutting out the bots.
> You can expect a massive reduction as soon as you have set your
> questions. You just set questions that are simple to answer, often
> based on what is on-screen at the time of registration. Bots can't
> handle that.
>
> Anne
> - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: GnuPG v1.4.12 (GNU/Linux)
> Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/
>
> iEYEARECAAYFAlAZB30ACgkQj93fyh4cnBexKwCfSQqkMeiyysMT177si4NzezEm
> ryAAnA/rz5jCetvqHT7QVluS6mekd2Tl
> =iCTi
> - -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: GnuPG v1.4.12 (GNU/Linux)
> Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/
>
> iEYEARECAAYFAlAZdVIACgkQj93fyh4cnBe9tACbB6BAN2d1UnluRP6zByTgt0ry
> JjQAn1m9M1x06kbKpPhyK/IjX6oezI2l
> =uZdF
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
>
> _______________________________________________
> MediaWiki-l mailing list
> MediaWiki-l [at] lists
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
>
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