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Logophile |
User spam profiles
Oct 30 2011, 9:16 AM EDT
I am Logophile, an administrator at the CLG Wiki. We have had several problems with spam. For a long time, spammers have joined our wiki just to advertise various things. It needs to stop and it needs to stop now. We need some sort of security before someone joins the site.
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CryingDove |
1. RE: User spam profiles
Oct 30 2011, 10:36 AM EDT
Spam is prevalent across the internet. So your wiki is not immune from Spam, nor is mine or even Wetpaint Central considering the wiki format which allows for collaboration from others. There are two types of spam mechanisms. One, a script that is run to do repetitive tasks and the other is by a manual entry by a human. Wetpaint has in place a challenge/response system (Captcha) that prevents non-human or robotic intervention. Wetpaint has also given the administration team the necessary tools to police their wikis. Wetpaint has also made emails unavailable to the public preventing spam from going through SMTP (email system) to the Wetpaint members. There is no technology present to make a determination of what a human action will be. Whether this human joining a wiki is going to spam or not. That leaves only another human to determine whether the new member will be a valuable member or not. Ok, now we have the tool. Human checking human. This is called moderating. Wetpaint has given, administrators and moderators the tools to moderate their wiki. What are some of these tools? Site permission levels. Member permission levels. IP and user name banning.and content deletion tools. These tools are in place for the moderating team to maintain their wikis, including keeping their wiki free of spammers. It takes diligence and a daily perseverance to police the updates to the wiki. But it has to be done. Spammers will come and they will be banned. It is part of life on the internet for most wikis, blogs or any other site that allows interaction to the public. more to come.... 1 out of 2 found this valuable. Do you? |
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CryingDove |
2. RE: User spam profiles
Oct 30 2011, 10:45 AM EDT
Moderating your wiki is essential. It must be done daily at maximum, because spammers will spam on a daily basis. Spammer profiles are easy to spot, and easy to ban. Deleting spammers is annoying, and can be tedious (if the wiki is not being checked periodically). But it is the responsibility of the administration team of the wiki because the technology to halt spamming via programming is already in place. This reply brought to you from a person, who along with two others, deleted 45000 threads and banned 2000 spammers on a wiki with very little moderating. 2 out of 3 found this valuable. Do you? |
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CryingDove |
3. RE: User spam profiles
Nov 6 2011, 1:00 AM EDT
| Post edited: Nov 6 2011, 1:19 AM EDT
My two replies were for Wetpaint's benefit. Now for a more researched answer.Captcha and Recaptcha are not as strong a security measure it once was. It is software and someone or many will try to bypass it. And the software has flaws that were recognized by unscrupulous programmers. Here is how captcha works: What it does is takes series of characters that failed OCR detection during the digitizing process of books and sends them to users in the form of two strings (often two words, but sometimes only partial words). It knows the answer to one string and it doesn’t know the other. When a user correctly gets the one it knows, it assumes that the one it didn’t know was also correct; when enough of the same entries are submitted for the string it didn’t know, it puts that string into the strings-it-knows pile. Put the same word in for the unknown word thousands of time, and guess what your word will put into the known word pile. Then it is easy to bot passed the captcha routine. My next post will be an alternative solution. 2 out of 3 found this valuable. Do you? |
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CryingDove |
4. RE: User spam profiles
Nov 6 2011, 1:19 AM EDT
| Post edited: Nov 6 2011, 11:17 AM EST
Wetpaint needs to set up a Question and Answer security system. A computer cannot recognize (at this time) images. By the use of arrays, an algorithm and a register to hold the answer can be used to basically set the Q&A model.1. Set up an array of images. A 10 X 10 array. This would yield 100 images. 2. Use an algorithm to select the placement of images into a form( table cells) to be displayed to the user. 3. Another algorithm would also generate the answer to the question. It would select the number of cells or images and the location of the cells in the table. 4. Ask the user to click all the images that are of a certain type. The cells in the table that are clicked would be compared to the answer generated by the algorithm. 5. If the users answer and the algorithm answer is correct they are allowed to enter. If not the user will be rejected. An example of this would 100 images of babies faces.. Some babies are smiling. Some babies are sad. Some babies are crying. Some babies are sleeping. The question would be asked to pick out all the babies that are crying. Different images can be used or rotated in and out by the use of multiple arrays. The combinations are endless and the best thing about this is it REQUIRES A HUMAN BEING to make the proper selections and not a robot. This will not stop monkey spammers but it will certainly put a halt to bots. 2 out of 3 found this valuable. Do you? |
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Logophile |
7. RE: User spam profiles
Nov 9 2011, 8:34 AM EST
"Wetpaint needs to set up a Question and Answer security system. A computer cannot recognize (at this time) images. By the use of arrays, an algorithm and a register to hold the answer can be used to basically set the Q&A model.That's a good idea. Someone oughta suggest that to the higher-ups there. Do you find this valuable? |
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Naru2008 |
10. RE: User spam profiles
Nov 9 2011, 6:08 PM EST
| Post edited: Nov 9 2011, 6:11 PM EST
I've complained about the spammers getting through several times in the past, but doubt I was paid any attention to.This would help get rid of the many spam accounts that are made by a bot, like the ones that join here on Wetpaint Central. It would be a great addition to the Platform. -Clay 2 out of 2 found this valuable. Do you? |