Wiki Spam Solutions

There have been a number of proposals for dealing with WikiSpam. This page compares the various proposals. The requirements section has been distilled from arguments used against these solutions in the past.

For more information, see AntiWikiSpamScripts, CategoryWikiSpam, and CrazyThingsThatMightSaveWiki.


Requirements

Here are some vague requirements to help guide us in finding a good solution. The order is arbitrary.


Solution comparison

Dashes mean that it probably meets the requirement; X's means that it probably doesn't meet the requirement.

  01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14
  -- xx -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  DelayedIndexing
  -- xx -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  NoFollow
  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- xx -- -- -- -- --  WikiSpamBlocker
  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- xx xx -- -- -- --  StatisticalFilter?
  xx -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- xx  BannedContentBot
  -- -- -- xx -- -- -- -- xx -- -- -- -- --  LanguageFilter
  -- xx -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  RedirectExternalLinks
  -- xx -- -- -- -- -- xx -- -- -- -- -- --  ExternalLinkArea
  -- xx xx -- xx -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  WarningMessage?s
  -- xx xx -- xx -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  SpamHereOnly
  -- -- -- xx -- -- xx -- xx xx -- -- -- --  ShotgunSpam
  -- xx -- -- -- xx -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  LetsInsulateOurselves
  -- xx -- -- -- xx -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  StopAutoLinking?
  -- -- -- -- xx -- xx -- xx -- -- -- -- --  VolumeLimitedEdits
  xx -- -- -- -- -- -- -- xx -- -- -- -- xx  EditThrottling
  -- -- -- xx -- -- xx -- -- -- -- -- -- --  HumanVerification
  -- -- -- -- -- xx xx -- -- xx -- -- -- --  RejectEdits?
  xx -- -- -- -- -- xx -- -- -- -- xx -- --  EditsRequireKarma
  -- -- -- xx -- -- xx -- -- -- -- -- -- xx  UserLogin?s
  xx -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- xx xx  SpamBlackList
  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- xx xx --  PeerToPeerBanList
  -- -- -- xx -- -- xx -- -- -- -- xx -- --  EditsRequireJavaScript?


Proposed solutions


While no measure is perfect by itself, most of them help to some kind of spammers. This suggests combined measures will be more effective than using a single solution. For example, on my wiki (although it definitely does not have the attention and LinkShare? of WardsWiki) I use combined LinkThrottling, EditThrottling and VolumeLimitedEdits - together with a system that requires fetching at least part of a page before saving it (this is actually a side effect of the transparent ThreeWayMerging? deployed in the wiki). This has prevented spamming thus far.

At any rate, any spam detection system is IMNSHO better than the "code word" system used here. It has effectively made this wiki a closed medium, for example it took me a long time before I could find the right moment to put this comment here. -- PanuKalliokoski

The right moment?

See, there was this period of approximately a month (fall 2004 IIRC), when I didn't ever manage to come to the wiki at a time the code word was there. So I concluded, "okay, this is not the place to participate anymore", and left for a long time. After many months, I checked again, and no, the code word wasn't there. So I didn't come back until now.

Not fall 2004, as the code mechanism was introduced about February 2005.


Related to WikiVandalismSolutions.

CategoryWikiSpam CategoryWikiSecurity


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