[pydotorg-www] Python Wiki Spam

[M.-A. Lemburg]

On 19.03.2013 09:14, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
> On 18.03.2013 19:58, Paul Boddie wrote:
>> On Monday 18 March 2013 19:00:37 Radomir Dopieralski wrote:
>>> On Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 6:51 PM, Paul Boddie <paul at boddie.org.uk> wrote:
>>>> Hello,
>>>>
>>>> We're getting a fair amount of spam on the Python Wiki. Can someone with
>>>> administrative privileges check that the textcha feature is enabled and
>>>> has been given a set of effective questions?
>>>
>>> You can see that it is enabled by visiting this link:
>>> http://wiki.python.org/moin/FrontPage?action=newaccount
>>>
>>> (make sure you are logged out)
>>>
>>> As for the questions, I'm open to suggestions.
>>
>> I don't think "How many words are in this question?" is really setting the bar 
>> very high for spammers. Textcha questions are supposed to retain the context 
>> of the site on which they are placed so that bulk spamming cannot just scrape 
>> the question and serve it up to someone on some other site. This means that 
>> we should be asking Python-related questions, not simple "Are you human?" 
>> questions that ceased to be effective about ten years ago.
> 
> Reimar is currently running a test on the Jython wiki. He marked
> "http" as bad content, which results in all edits including that
> word to get rejected.
> 
> At least on the Jython wiki, this has apparently stopped the spam
> pages from getting created:
> 
> http://wiki.python.org/jython/RecentChanges
> 
> It's not a permanent solution, though, since it prevents adding
> links to pages.

The experiment has resulted in the spam being stopped. Unfortunately,
it also prohibited any edits of pages with links on them - even
by regular wiki users.

I've removed the http again and will add a new set of textchas
for now.

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
PSF Vice Chairman