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Wikipedia usually has the best technology and organization to address seemingly every wiki-related problem. Spam fighting is no exception. ''To-do'': read the pages linked from:
Wikipedia usually has the best technology and organization to address seemingly every wiki-related problem. Spam fighting is no exception. ''To-do'': read the pages linked from:
* [[wikipedia:WP:EIW#Spam]], such as:
* [[wikipedia:WP:EIW#Spam]]
** [[mw:Manual:Combating spam]]
Presumably, whatever spam attack someone tries against Appropedia, they or someone else probably already tried against Wikipedia, and Wikipedia's technically proficient users have probably devised a countermeasure. Wikipedia (especially the English Wikipedia) is the largest and most attractive target for spammers, because it is the most-viewed wiki, and Wikipedia articles tend to have very high PageRank{{w|PageRank}} in Google search results. Wikipedia is also (probably) the best-defended wiki, which means spammers probably attack other less-viewed wikis after failing to make durable edits on Wikipedia.
Presumably, whatever spam attack someone tries against Appropedia, they or someone else probably already tried against Wikipedia, and Wikipedia's technically proficient users have probably devised a countermeasure. Wikipedia (especially the English Wikipedia) is the largest and most attractive target for spammers, because it is the most-viewed wiki, and Wikipedia articles tend to have very high PageRank{{w|PageRank}} in Google search results. Wikipedia is also (probably) the best-defended wiki, which means spammers probably attack other less-viewed wikis after failing to make durable edits on Wikipedia.


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The pattern looks consistent enough to block with a regular expression in MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist. The extension appears to use [[wikipedia:Perl Compatible Regular Expressions|Perl Compatible Regular Expressions]] (PCRE) syntax. I will have to test the effect of adding a regular expression to the blacklist, by attempting to add a sample of the spambot's URLs to a test page. I'll mention this on [[Appropedia:Village pump#Blacklisting the spam]].
The pattern looks consistent enough to block with a regular expression in MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist. The extension appears to use [[wikipedia:Perl Compatible Regular Expressions|Perl Compatible Regular Expressions]] (PCRE) syntax. I will have to test the effect of adding a regular expression to the blacklist, by attempting to add a sample of the spambot's URLs to a test page. I'll mention this on [[Appropedia:Village pump#Blacklisting the spam]].


Try using [[Special:LinkSearch]] to see if we have any more of these URLs floating around on Appropedia. Look at [[wikipedia:MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist]]
Try using [[Special:LinkSearch]] to see if we have any more of these URLs floating around on Appropedia.
 
22:26, 7 April 2011 (PDT): I'm sure that anyone who spams Appropedia has probably spammed lots of other wikis. Thus we can imagine that every spamming attack that we see on Appropedia has also been seen by the administrators of other wikis. Maybe there is a central clearinghouse where wiki administrators can compare notes on how they defeat the various spamming attacks. Look at: [[mw:Extension:SpamBlacklist]].


13:31, 16 April 2011 (PDT): an alternative is to use MediaWiki:Titleblacklist. Probably it would be enough (for now) to block creation of any page with the string "Jobs" in the title. [https://www.appropedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=Jobs&fulltext=Search A search on Appropedia for "Jobs"] finds only [[Jobs]] as a redirect to [[Employment]]. Few legitimate Appropedia users would ever seem to need to make a page title containing the word "Jobs". Thus it might be safe to blacklist. I will test this later when I have some time to observe the results. I need to figure out:
13:31, 16 April 2011 (PDT): an alternative is to use MediaWiki:Titleblacklist. Probably it would be enough (for now) to block creation of any page with the string "Jobs" in the title. [https://www.appropedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=Jobs&fulltext=Search A search on Appropedia for "Jobs"] finds only [[Jobs]] as a redirect to [[Employment]]. Few legitimate Appropedia users would ever seem to need to make a page title containing the word "Jobs". Thus it might be safe to blacklist. I will test this later when I have some time to observe the results. I need to figure out:
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