Hard Light Productions Forums

Community Projects => The FreeSpace Wiki Project => Topic started by: Wanderer on March 09, 2006, 12:56:37 pm

Title: To minimize spamming..
Post by: Wanderer on March 09, 2006, 12:56:37 pm

Would it be possible to get the system to do the same that for example The Great Machine (http://tgm.firstones.com/wiki/Main_Page) (B5 wiki) does? That is, only registrated people could edit the wiki and also the registration would use the now common image verification.. Even if it would be totally separate from the forum registration.

Dunno what it takes but similar thing was proposed earlier.. and it might be a good thing to have. Any opinions?

Title: Re: To minimize spamming..
Post by: starfox on March 09, 2006, 01:18:38 pm

I concur about Wiki...and I'm not totally against the image verification either, though it's by no means a necessity.
As for the "registration to edit wiki", it could be benefitical in such cases as preventing spamming to some extent and also ensuring the most reliable source of information possible.

So IMHO, Yes to the registration and No to the "Image Verification", I just don't find it necessary....

As always, it's just my honest opinion...

Title: Re: To minimize spamming..
Post by: Goober5000 on March 09, 2006, 02:04:52 pm

I was thinking about posting a topic like this myself.  I concur. :)

Title: Re: To minimize spamming..
Post by: Black Wolf on March 10, 2006, 04:09:10 am

I personally dfisagree. One of the nice things about a wiki is being able to edit it openly without registering. But if there seems to be general support, I'fd go along with it.

Title: Re: To minimize spamming..
Post by: Taristin on March 10, 2006, 11:31:45 am

It may be nice, and all, but it makes it super easy for web bots to destroy hours of hard work. I'm sure it's annoying as hell to those who spent their evening writing up articles on it.

Title: Re: To minimize spamming..
Post by: Goober5000 on March 10, 2006, 04:11:55 pm

It only takes a few clicks to revert, you know.  But it's annoying to have to revert ten pages every evening.

Title: Re: To minimize spamming..
Post by: Taristin on March 10, 2006, 05:54:00 pm

I was aware. And that was my point.

Title: Re: To minimize spamming..
Post by: Goober5000 on March 10, 2006, 05:59:58 pm

Well, the "destroy hours of hard work" comment implied you thought it was permanent. :)

Title: Re: To minimize spamming..
Post by: Taristin on March 10, 2006, 06:32:49 pm

Mm, bad choice of words, I guess. But I meant more that after spending hours of work on an article, having something constantly overwrite it with an ad would be infuriating.

Title: Re: To minimize spamming..
Post by: Wanderer on March 13, 2006, 02:41:06 pm

Now there is a registered spammer bringing adverts....  hopefully there wont be too many more of those. Banning is (IMHO) most likely an act of futility if it is a bot as it will most likely register again as soon as it gets banned.

Title: Re: To minimize spamming..
Post by: Taristin on March 13, 2006, 04:26:01 pm

Turn off automatic account approval. Make it follow a link in the email...

Title: Re: To minimize spamming..
Post by: Goober5000 on March 13, 2006, 07:48:28 pm

Ugh.  Maybe the best thing to do would be to use admin approval, and only approve people who are registered at HLP.

Title: Re: To minimize spamming..
Post by: WMCoolmon on March 13, 2006, 10:14:22 pm

IIRC kasperl said he could integrate the database with SMF's. I really like that solution the best...anybody who has any business editing the wiki will almost certainly be registered at HLP already.

You might ask a couple of the other smaller wikis about what they do to keep spammers out (Likely force registration)

Title: Re: To minimize spamming..
Post by: kasperl on March 15, 2006, 01:37:46 pm

Could integrate. Won't be able to start on it now for at least 2 or 3 weeks. If any remotely competent PHP coder with full acces to HLP's stuff (PHPMyAdmin, FTP, SQL passwords for scripts) could spend about a day on it, it'd be coupled. As in, 2 login pages, with the same set of passwords. I'm not touching the SMF log-in code itsself, just the database.

Title: Re: To minimize spamming..
Post by: Goober5000 on March 21, 2006, 01:40:25 pm

Why haven't we banned Venusparkle85 yet? :wtf:

(I'm assuming Wanderer, as a Wiki admin, can ban people from the Wiki - correct me if I'm wrong.)

Title: Re: To minimize spamming..
Post by: Wanderer on March 21, 2006, 02:00:41 pm

Nope.. I cant do that. I believe i can only ban (block) non-registered users

Title: Re: To minimize spamming..
Post by: Goober5000 on March 21, 2006, 04:23:29 pm

That... doesn't make sense.  You ought to be able to do that.

Tell you what - make me a Wiki admin and I'll have a look. :)

Title: Re: To minimize spamming..
Post by: Wanderer on March 21, 2006, 04:50:01 pm

I cant set you any other status other than bot ;). That said i'm having status of 'sysop' and setting a new sysop requires 'bureaucrat' status (=Sandwhich)

But problem is simply this: Relevant Mediawiki help page (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Administration#Block_and_unblock),

I'm guessing thats the reason because i have tried twice to ban that Venusparkle85 and both times i have got this 'IP Address does not exist.' error. I didnt bother to report it as there seems to rathet low interest in the community to improve the FSwiki at the moment. Search is busted, FSDoc porting is not proceding at all, etc. etc.

Title: Re: To minimize spamming..
Post by: Goober5000 on March 21, 2006, 07:07:36 pm

I think it's a cyclical thing - they don't want to improve it because it's not getting improved. :) Spamming doesn't help though.

Guess all we need is for Sandwich to make those changes.  Thanks for looking that up. :)

Title: Re: To minimize spamming..
Post by: Goober5000 on March 24, 2006, 10:47:09 pm

Okay, I finally (what is this, three months?) got access to the web control panel, so I added the changes in your link.  See if it works. :)

Title: Re: To minimize spamming..
Post by: Wanderer on March 25, 2006, 12:14:14 am

;) That did it. Big thanks to you. :yes: