Hello guys,
During the past few days the wiki (itself, not the forum) has become the target of persistent spam attacks. Only a handful of spammy edits have made it to the air and were immediately deleted, but I got tired of patrolling and instituted a system upon which a new user has to become approved by a sysop in order to edit pages.
Because this setting is a bit complex, I cannot guarantee it works 100%; supposedly all existing users are not affected, but if you happen upon any trouble editing or creating pages, please do let me know at once...
Cheers
Gryzor
There is a problem: Even after I'm logged in, I can't edit any pages, the "edit" button is missing?
Bryce.
Ah damn, so it didn't work. Damn, damn, damn. Pity... I'll undo it.
I always get the feeling their following me! ??? Would you think they would pick on the Facebooks, Twitters and the other communications networks out there - - simply because their's more of them than there is of us!! ???
Maybe they feel that people who are interested in old computers are more likely to be interested in little blue pills than the teenies who spend their life on MyFace, Twitbook et al?
Bryce.
Quote from: Bryce on 09:58, 16 March 11
Maybe they feel that people who are interested in old computers are more likely to be interested in little blue pills than the teenies who spend their life on MyFace, Twitbook et al?
Bryce.
MyFace I heard is supposed to be using technologies which incorporate the advertising based on what attributes you enter about yourself, or so I heard, so eventually some hacker will probably crack this wide open and send you advertising based on what they think you should do! :-[ Twitbook & co aren't they simply means to spread rubbish on mass, I guess their only any good if people want to be spammed! ;) (Sign into my account if you prefer spam - that sort of this I guess! :P )
Quote from: Bryce on 09:36, 16 March 11
There is a problem: Even after I'm logged in, I can't edit any pages, the "edit" button is missing?
Bryce.
I think that happened, because Gryzor has to move the already existing users to his new usergroup.
Nevermind, I finally enabled some SORBS (http://www.au.sorbs.net/) supports, hopefully this will slow them down...
Thanks Gryzor, there goes any chance I had of finally selling the last of those "appendage enlargement" pills. And I had hoped that the money would support my MegaFlash development :(
Bryce.
Hash now, mate, send me a board and I'll give you the user db, how 'bout that?
Hash? If you send me that, I won't be able to complete the design at all :D And as for selling the user db, you're starting to sound like Zuckerberg :D
Bryce.
*hush.
Zuckerberg - minus the monies and the girlzzz...
Because the spam attack is continuing, I have now implemented a CAPTCHA, another edit anti-spam and a blacklist method. The CAPTCHA should only appear when registering a new user, while the edit method and the black list should not be visible to anyone. If, however, you run into anything weird please let me know at once...
Feel free to play around with creating new users and testing things (although, please use normal names as I tend to delete random character-based usernames without a second look... Also please do try to trick it and post some spam in the "test" wiki page to check things!
Hello guys,
I'm currently manually blocking around 5-10 spam user creations on the main wiki site daily. By doing this I have eradicated almost 100% of spam posts, but I'm getting bored of this. So I added the following lines to the .htaccess file:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP:VIA} !^$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:FORWARDED} !^$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:USERAGENT_VIA} !^$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:X_FORWARDED_FOR} !^$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:PROXY_CONNECTION} !^$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:XPROXY_CONNECTION} !^$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:HTTP_PC_REMOTE_ADDR} !^$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:HTTP_CLIENT_IP} !^$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [F]
However, I'm worried that this may exclude some people from accessing the wiki from work (especially multinationals who use proxies), so could you please give me your feedback?
Cheers
Themis
I'm currently logged in from a multinational and using a proxy. No problems found atm :D
Quote from: Metr on 14:51, 31 March 11
I'm currently logged in from a multinational and using a proxy. No problems found atm :D
Thanks for that. Some proxies do not use the 'proper' header information and thus will pass through (including some spammers), but I just wanted to check out this solution as well...
I just successfully made a change to a Wiki Page through a German proxy.
Bryce.
Damn, it seems proxies do not adhere to the protocol any more :D
Quote
- (User creation log (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Log/newusers)); 23:12 . . Fridkadi (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User:Fridkadi&action=edit&redlink=1) (Talk (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User_talk:Fridkadi&action=edit&redlink=1) | contribs (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Contributions/Fridkadi)) New user account
- (User creation log (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Log/newusers)); 22:19 . . Jedjahm (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User:Jedjahm&action=edit&redlink=1) (Talk (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User_talk:Jedjahm&action=edit&redlink=1) | contribs (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Contributions/Jedjahm)) New user account
- (User creation log (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Log/newusers)); 11:45 . . Archnor (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User:Archnor&action=edit&redlink=1) (Talk (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User_talk:Archnor&action=edit&redlink=1) | contribs (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Contributions/Archnor)) New user account
- (User creation log (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Log/newusers)); 08:33 . . Eruemars (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User:Eruemars&action=edit&redlink=1) (Talk (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User_talk:Eruemars&action=edit&redlink=1) | contribs (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Contributions/Eruemars)) New user account
- (User creation log (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Log/newusers)); 08:33 . . Geermam (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User:Geermam&action=edit&redlink=1) (Talk (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User_talk:Geermam&action=edit&redlink=1) | contribs (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Contributions/Geermam)) New user account
- (User creation log (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Log/newusers)); 05:46 . . Dalmeng (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User:Dalmeng&action=edit&redlink=1) (Talk (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User_talk:Dalmeng&action=edit&redlink=1) | contribs (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Contributions/Dalmeng)) New user account
- (User creation log (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Log/newusers)); 02:38 . . Valeilai (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User:Valeilai&action=edit&redlink=1) (Talk (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User_talk:Valeilai&action=edit&redlink=1) | contribs (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Contributions/Valeilai)) New user account
- (User creation log (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Log/newusers)); 01:46 . . Pencaro (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User:Pencaro&action=edit&redlink=1) (Talk (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User_talk:Pencaro&action=edit&redlink=1) | contribs (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Contributions/Pencaro)) New user account
30 March 2011
- (User creation log (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Log/newusers)); 06:08 . . Bellsif (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User:Bellsif&action=edit&redlink=1) (Talk (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User_talk:Bellsif&action=edit&redlink=1) | contribs (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Contributions/Bellsif)) New user account
- (User creation log (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Log/newusers)); 04:52 . . Eiddheer (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User:Eiddheer&action=edit&redlink=1) (Talk (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User_talk:Eiddheer&action=edit&redlink=1) | contribs (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Contributions/Eiddheer)) New user account
- (User creation log (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Log/newusers)); 02:35 . . Apolnay (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User:Apolnay&action=edit&redlink=1) (Talk (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User_talk:Apolnay&action=edit&redlink=1) | contribs (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Contributions/Apolnay)) New user account
29 March 2011
- (User creation log (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Log/newusers)); 10:59 . . Oxlgarv (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User:Oxlgarv&action=edit&redlink=1) (Talk (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User_talk:Oxlgarv&action=edit&redlink=1) | contribs (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Contributions/Oxlgarv)) New user account
- (User creation log (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Log/newusers)); 08:41 . . Verevart (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User:Verevart&action=edit&redlink=1) (Talk (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User_talk:Verevart&action=edit&redlink=1) | contribs (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Contributions/Verevart)) New user account
- (User creation log (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Log/newusers)); 08:05 . . Harlcro (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User:Harlcro&action=edit&redlink=1) (Talk (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User_talk:Harlcro&action=edit&redlink=1) | contribs (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Contributions/Harlcro)) New user account
- (User creation log (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Log/newusers)); 04:34 . . Daelnata (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User:Daelnata&action=edit&redlink=1) (Talk (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User_talk:Daelnata&action=edit&redlink=1) | contribs (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Contributions/Daelnata)) New user account
- (User creation log (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Log/newusers)); 03:16 . . Leitbroo (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User:Leitbroo&action=edit&redlink=1) (Talk (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User_talk:Leitbroo&action=edit&redlink=1) | contribs (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Contributions/Leitbroo)) New user account
- (User creation log (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Log/newusers)); 02:32 . . Nickfynd (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User:Nickfynd&action=edit&redlink=1) (Talk (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php?title=User_talk:Nickfynd&action=edit&redlink=1) | contribs (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Special:Contributions/Nickfynd)) New user account
Are those all Spam proxies or are those the new poeples interested in CPC since the Batman, Demo in eastern europe ???
No, these are actually people from China, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and other exotic prox - erm, countries wanting to donate me money for the great work I do :)
Quote from: Gryzor on 15:09, 01 April 11
No, these are actually people from China, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and other exotic prox - erm, countries wanting to donate me money for the great work I do :)
*cough* :P
Was it an April fool ?
Anyway i was just asking... :(
Quote from: MacDeath on 18:13, 01 April 11
Was it an April fool ?
Anyway i was just asking... :(
Which part? Only the donations part was a lie but it was intended as irony, not an April Fool's joke :D
Category:SPAM
I created it...
If anyone of you find such spam page, apply this category to the page so the Admin can use his mighty Banhammer !
Please mighty Admin :
http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Category:SPAM
use this link.
Well, the silly thing is:
For every twenty spam accounts, nineteen are blocked within minutes after their creation.
For every ten of those who get through without me noticing or while I'm asleep, only one stays long enough to post an article.
For every ten of those articles, er... NONE are read by anyone (when I get there the page counter is always 2: one is the spammer, the second is me).
And, funniest of all: these spam articles are not meant to lure you to buy stuff but to promote other sites in Google's rankings. However, I have set the nofollow directive for our installation, so Google does not even consider them[nb]the downside of this is that all the other external sites are not benefited from our linking, but I will undo that when the spam attacks are over[/nb]! So it's just a huge waste of time...
Quote from: Gryzor on 08:31, 06 April 11
However, I have set the nofollow directive for our installation, so Google does not even consider them
This hurts your SEO and could explain why the website is lower in Google rankings than you would like.
Actually, I'm not sure about this. $wgNoFollowLinks makes only *external* links not follow-able, internal structure remains intact. On the other hand, if you mean that Google 'punishes' sites that use nofollow , I didn't find any indication of that (though there seems to be some discussion on it).
In any case, strange thing: I added this line only a few days ago, so it would have had no time for what you're saying. BUT, I just realised that even without it, Mediawiki defaults to 'true', so it was like that all along, possibly. Which could mean that, if Google does punish sites, it *could* be a reason.
If you care to explain why you say that I might disable it altogether...
Quote from: Gryzor on 10:31, 06 April 11
If you care to explain why you say that I might disable it altogether...
Can't offer anything more concrete than experience I'm afraid.
Have seen several websites 'section off' parts of their websites with nofollow exceptions and this has severely hurt their SEO. Turn it back on and one crawl later everything is back to normal.
Would also make sense considering the alleged algorithm that Google uses - the external followed links are what build page ranks, so any website that isn't playing ball would hurt the relevancy of their results.
Well, that's good enough - experience, I mean. I was thinking along the same lines when I mentioned 'punishment', though nofollow was put in place exactly to battle Search Engine spam... go figure. Wikipedia still has it, by the way, and I would assume they're pretty neat about such things.
In any case, I've removed it - spam is too low anyhow -, so now let's sit back and watch as we zoom past Youtube and Wikipedia :)
Hahaha! We just had our first non-commerial spam: a link to a site preaching the Quran.
Stupid trivia of the day: the main video proclaiming "Christian Scientist admits the Quran is true!". I mean, no matter what your religion, how can the Quran (or the Bible etc) cannot be 'true'?
I may well have missed something here so forgive me if this has been mentioned before but I encountered something different today when trying to update a page on the wiki.
Finally got some spare time so decided to tart up the Cyrus II Chess page - made all of my changes, checked it on preview and went to save the page but the page didn't update. Tried clicking again and then I noticed what appears to be a spam protection measure asking me to insert the contents of two boxes into a field to allow me to update as I had added new external links (WOS, GB64, Generation MSX and CPC Game Reviews to be exact). Unfortunately no boxes appeared nor was there any refresh option or anything of that ilk just an empty field. I saved the code I had written to a wordpad document and planned to try again at home at some point (assuming that this was due to a bug with the crappy old version of IE that my workplace insists on using) but thought I'd better post here just in case it's not and there is actually something wrong somewhere!
Hmmm thanks for letting me know... from the sound of it it was the recaptcha module that was missing. Maybe your work proxy blocked that? If you could try again from home and, maybe, tomorrow again from the office to verify I'd be grateful...
The captcha thing though doesn't have "two boxes into one field", it's only one box with an image, so I'm not 100% sure. If you encounter this again from home, could you take a screenshot?
Thanks!
...I think we've won. Good riddance! :)