User talk:Meyer

From OESF

Welcome to my talk page. Feel free to leave OESF Wiki-related notes for me here. Just edit the page and add your comments in a new paragraph at the bottom. Please start your comment with a level-2 header ("== your subject here ==") (or use the "+" tab), and sign and date your post by appending "-- ~~~~" to the end.

If I there's anything in your comments I need to respond to, I will append my answer to this page following your post. Watch this page if you care what I have to say to you. ;)

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Contents 1 From Tux 2 Congratulations 3 Spam counter-measures 4 Gibberbots 5 dz's tilde:- 6 Request to Delete or Rename pages

From Tux

Hi Meyer, I liked the comment about cutting down trees with a herring!

Lets hope that someone among the admins recruits some help.

My idea would be that we recognise the bots and indefinite ban them and carry on doing that until they are all dead!

Of course that would only be a real solution if they also going to leave anonymous editing turned off and made the registering much harder for non-humans.!

See you later! Tux 06:41, 26 September 2007 (EDT)

Glad you liked the herring line, but I stole it from Monty Python. ;)

Something definitely needs to be done about the spambots. It's embarrassing how vulnerable the wiki is. The only problem with banning is I'm sure the bots are already smart enough to come back with a new user name and IP address.

There are a number of things that can be done, including my personal favorite of installing the Wikipedia AntiSpamBot (fight fire with fire), but they all involve the wiki administrators, and I can't say how high the wiki is on their list of priorities. At least DK seems to be looking into the problem.

Back to the despamming. Keep fighting the good fight.

--Meyer 21:51, 25 Sep 2007 (EDT)

Congratulations

Congratulations Meyer on the sysop/bureaucrat bit! Hope I'll be able to cope with the sysop/bureaucrat stuff. Wish me luck. Tux 06:41, 26 September 2007 (EDT)

Good luck to both of us, Partner. You'll have to teach me what the hell I should be doing. -- Meyer 07:05, 26 September 2007 (EDT)

Spam counter-measures

Well don't rely too much on me! I just blocked myself!!! Fortunately I noticed quite quickly!

What I do to kill spambots!

At the moment I'm going through the Recent changes list as I used to. This time I'm looking for RED user names and looking at the page history and the version attached to the name.

Obviously when I find a spammed page I can take a look at the RED user revisions and block as required.

If it is the spambot stuff I select: Block, other, 1 year ban, other and put spambot in the other box. Then select block.

I'm hoping this new wiki software can really block the same IP.

Tux 07:43, 26 September 2007 (EDT)

What is this Spambot of which you speak? Is that captcha that is mentioned in the forum likely to be of use here? Have you discovered how dz can turn off anonymous editing? I'm going to have to spend some serious homework time on those manuals. I also need to learn how to edit with style! Lots to do!.Tux 12:27, 27 September 2007 (EDT)

Did you read my post at OESF:AN#The_Robot_Wars and the web pages linked there? I think there are a couple of captcha mechanisms being talked about. One is already in place in the forum user registration process, and it is preventing spambots from getting wiki ID's created through the linkage between forum user registration and the wiki. Another captcha we've been talking about is a MediaWiki extension Dz will try to install this weekend. It will have a more direct impact on the wiki as it can be configured to check user registrations or edits by all or a subset of users. -- Meyer (talk) 13:03, 27 September 2007 (EDT)

I expect you've already found the enhanced (javascript) Recent Pages option. I've just started using it. I've also put a Delete pages and a Banned Users thread in the OESF WIKI forum. Hope they'll be useful.Tux 15:52, 28 September 2007 (EDT)

Do you mean something other than the "Recent changes" link in the navigation box in the upper left-hand corner of each page? -- Meyer (talk) 22:27, 30 September 2007 (EDT)

No,I think it is an option in preferences?--Tux 04:23, 1 October 2007 (EDT)

Found it. Thanks. Looks interesting. -- Meyer (talk) 04:32, 1 October 2007 (EDT)

Gibberbots

They are finding their way back. At the moment these little creatures are just putting gibberish in. We really do need anonymous editing turned off!--Tux 18:03, 30 September 2007 (EDT)

Yes, indeed. I'll comment in the forum. -- Meyer (talk) 22:27, 30 September 2007 (EDT)

These bots/people are now producing new pages. We really do need anonymous editing turned off, at least for now!--Tux 18:11, 1 October 2007 (EDT)

There is no form of captcha on the registration as yet! I know because I registered user Bogus!!! You and I can't remove users can we? I suppose it would have to be done with database queries and commands, sounds like a job for dz! --Tux 18:16, 1 October 2007 (EDT)

I haven't heard for dz, but I think he hasn't completed all the wiki work he planned for the weekend. If ConfirmEdit and the other measures have been set up correctly and there's no reduction in spam, I agree that disallowing anonymous posts is the next step. But you have to admit that whatever it was about the MediaWiki upgrade, we are getting less spam now than with the old version.

I haven't seen any way for mere administrators to delete user records, but I wouldn't worry about it too much. As long as there's no user page created I don't think user records take up too much database space. Eventually some user may want to register as "Bogus" or "Spambot", but we can cross that bridge when we come to it.

-- Meyer (talk) 19:27, 1 October 2007 (EDT)

• Hi guys, just wondered if we can find the sources to one of these bots and work out what their algorithm is, then make it more difficult for it to work ? For example, if they always sign up with a user name of letter-letter-number, say, then we can automatically ban all users with that login etc etc. Koan 08:24, 10 October 2007 (EDT)

dz's tilde:-

Thanks Meyer, didn't realise the tilde was genuine! What does it do?--Tux 18:06, 6 October 2007 (EDT)

I don't know. Perhaps dz intended it as a place-holder instead of a real user page just to keep his signature link from being red. -- Meyer

== (talk) 02:00, 7 October 2007 (EDT)

Request to Delete or Rename pages

Hi Meyer, I was considering deleting a page that I thought was redundant. I also thought about taking the content of a page and putting it in a new one with a correctly spelled title. In other words a title change. Is there a clever way of changing the title?

Regardless, I did wonder if making a page for people to ask for title changes and page deletions and for discussion of the same might be a good idea?-Tux 06:16, 10 October 2007 (EDT)