Wiki Spam

[koldar]

It looks like someone is purposefully harming the wiki. Is it possible to revert the changes made and to place a tighter level of security on who can post in the wiki?

[froglok23]

as far as I know, it’s just random arse boot which are doing it as its open like a book :(

People have re-updated it over and over, but until security measures are taken to stop these bots from posting, it won’t do much good :(


- froglok

[Angelox]

I guess I don't understand how this Wiki works, who started it? and how can some control be put into it? By control, I mean at least some measures to stop the spam bots. I've been thinking about posting all I know/learned with EqEmu in the Wiki, but hate to waste my time.

[sfisque]

how about someone else hosting a new wiki, where we secure it and moderate it? if the old one isnt offering what we need and no one with admin control is addressing the security, then its useless to keep fixing it. is there a way to export out the data somehow and rebuild a new one?

== sfisque

[froglok23]

I don’t think having someone else host the EQEmu official Wiki is worth it, that’s just reinventing the wheel... again. Why not appoint a Wiki moderator and have the admin of the site lock it down to say, registered members only?

2 ideas which have previously been brought up by other posts / members.

1. Registered users only
2. The image, were you need to type in the text (capcha or something, I forget the name).

Random idea, Content Approval - Someone else has to review it before it can be accessed publicly.

- froglok

[sfisque]

agreed, but i have yet to see someone with admin privs to the wiki step up and say something.

lacking someone to lock down the wiki, our only other alternative is to start a new one. i was hoping my point would be seen by whomever has that level of access and they would feel instigated to say something.

== sfisque

[froglok23]

Originally Posted by sfisque

agreed, but i have yet to see someone with admin privs to the wiki step up and say something.

lacking someone to lock down the wiki, our only other alternative is to start a new one. i was hoping my point would be seen by whomever has that level of access and they would feel instigated to say something.

== sfisque

Ahh cool cool sorry if I was abrupt.

AFAIK, I think mattmeck has the power over the Wiki,but im unsure.

- froglok

[Irreverent]

I don't moderating wiki spam if someone is needed.

Originally Posted by froglok23

Ahh cool cool sorry if I was abrupt.

AFAIK, I think mattmeck has the power over the Wiki,but im unsure.

- froglok

I dont, Doodman, FNW and Rogean are the only ones who have any control over the wiki.

[froglok23]

Ahh Okay, I wasnt sure. Just seemed logical. But I was wrong

- froglok

[boogerific]

Just pointing out that we've been over this in two other threads, both within the month.

[Lalolyen]

Actually if the admin of the wiki would contact me.. I can give ya some code to stop auto-signups on the wiki and can give ya some code to stop spam submissions.

Everyone has seen the "type what you see in the image" to create an account but the anti-spam script is our own that I created a few years back. Simply put, its the same type of preventative script that VB and phpBB uses to keep people from flooding a forum, based upon time.

[Theeper]

CAPTCHA's won't stop the bots. there is plenty of CAPTCHA detecting OCR software out there that works great. The easiest thing to is to put a simple hidden form variable or add some custom field to the reg page. Then, the spammers have to manually modify their bots. They won't want to do it just for one site.

[Lalolyen]

Mine will I haven't seen a CAPTCHA bot yet that can answer questions thats presented in an image =).

Such as in text "What color" In image "is the sky"? And...
in text "What are the first two letters in" in image "Rhumspheld"?

If bots can break that, its time for me to retire.

You would really have to have one hell of a reason system built into that bot.

[Theeper]

You should start your retirement process now then :p~

Since your questions couldn't be completely random, it's just security through obscurity. All I need to do is manually refresh your page a few times and write down all the answers one time.

Since a bot can easily read your image text, it's simple to plug in the answers and have the bot compare text strings and generate the answer.

The main principal behind CAPTCHA is that the text is completely random, so it would be very difficult for someone to generate a hash table or maintain a list of answers. Setting a finite amount of possible solutions actually makes it easier for bots to crack your system.

Granted, noone would spend much effort to crack that type of CAPTCHA on a small site like this, but if it were a piece of widely distributed software or some big site, it would be cracked within minutes.