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NIWA Community => NIWA Discussion => Topic started by: Peanut64 on March 10, 2011, 04:41:51 PM

Title: Has this ordeal been hitting any other NIWA wikis?
Post by: Peanut64 on March 10, 2011, 04:41:51 PM
Pikipedia, Pikmin Fanon and (The unofficial) Mario Fanon wiki have been bombarded with spam. I was just wondering if this has been happening with any other wikis because I am trying to investigate and put a stop to it. Please help me figure this out, my admins and I have been deleting, blocking and looking for spam and spammers. I have no Idea what it is, but I could be a spam bot because only Mario Fanon has links to other advertisements.  ??? This entire thing puts me in a horrid frustration that gets in the way of my Wiki contributions.  >:(
Title: Re: Has this ordeal been hitting any other NIWA wikis?
Post by: Aria der Donau on March 10, 2011, 07:09:49 PM
The Fire Emblem Wiki was attacked last week. I'm pretty sure all new accounts are from spammers.

The pattern they followed was:
1. New account
2. New page (usually a long title with a number on the end. E.g., "How have I managed to keep away from listservs In a word Twitter 68")
3. New image

And that was all. Quite annoying.
Title: Re: Has this ordeal been hitting any other NIWA wikis?
Post by: Member#36 on March 10, 2011, 10:11:50 PM
Peanut, since you are staff, you can find the NIWA's discussion here (http://www.niwanetwork.org/forums/index.php?topic=569.0[url=http://here).

Several methods were discussed and applied.  These methods are not too hard to guess, but, I'm not sure if I should speak them here since it's hidden for a reason.  If you have a question, put it in the thread.

For those who are not staff, talk to a staff member of your wiki, since each wiki had a different method or combination of methods to deal with the issue.

To answer you question, a lot of the NIWA wikis have indeed been hit.
Title: Re: Has this ordeal been hitting any other NIWA wikis?
Post by: Miles of SmashWiki on March 11, 2011, 04:04:53 AM
From what I've seen, the "obvious question" captcha is an excellent tool.
Title: Re: Has this ordeal been hitting any other NIWA wikis?
Post by: Naesala on March 15, 2011, 02:16:49 AM
Something happened to Zelda wiki

(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc259/BizzaroInvaderAndy/Picture1.png)
Title: Re: Has this ordeal been hitting any other NIWA wikis?
Post by: SnorlaxMonster on March 15, 2011, 12:28:06 PM
Grawp? Oh dear. He was one of the biggest vandals in Bulbapedia history. Ban him ASAP, and watch out for sockpuppets. I wasn't actually on Bulbapedia at the time, so I don't know exactly what he did, but I do know he really caused some trouble.

EDIT: In fact, he was a serious vandal on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Grawp) too.
Title: Re: Has this ordeal been hitting any other NIWA wikis?
Post by: Maxite on March 16, 2011, 07:58:09 PM
Peanut, since you are staff, you can find the NIWA's discussion here (http://www.niwanetwork.org/forums/index.php?topic=569.0[url=http://here).

Several methods were discussed and applied.  These methods are not too hard to guess, but, I'm not sure if I should speak them here since it's hidden for a reason.  If you have a question, put it in the thread.

For those who are not staff, talk to a staff member of your wiki, since each wiki had a different method or combination of methods to deal with the issue.

To answer you question, a lot of the NIWA wikis have indeed been hit.

I still think that some information should be made public. I'm working on starting up a wiki, and any advice/tips on how to curtail spam would be useful before I have the problem rather than after the fact.
Title: Re: Has this ordeal been hitting any other NIWA wikis?
Post by: Jake on March 17, 2011, 04:18:34 PM
We're currently discussing the possibility of making that topic public. Stay tuned. :)
Title: Re: Has this ordeal been hitting any other NIWA wikis?
Post by: TurtwigA on March 18, 2011, 12:55:33 AM
Grawp? Oh dear. He was one of the biggest vandals in Bulbapedia history. Ban him ASAP, and watch out for sockpuppets. I wasn't actually on Bulbapedia at the time, so I don't know exactly what he did, but I do know he really caused some trouble.

EDIT: In fact, he was a serious vandal on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Grawp) too.

Not only those two wikis either. He's vandalized several wikis, I think more than 10 now.