I have to agree with this. Something needs to be done. In addition, I would like a new feature (I'm not asking for much am I? :). I would like a special shared watchlist. This watchlist would be used for watching articles that have been vandalized by vandals like Michael. I have found that he always goes back to the same [type of] article. Basically, there would be an option (for sys op's only) to add a page to vandal hotlist (or something). In addition, there would be an option to view vandal hotlist. This would make it much easier for me personally, (and other's I'm sure) b/c I don't like having my watchlist full of the hundreds of article's Michael (and other such vandals) frequent. However, I think a hot list of such type would be a great resource. What do you guys think? Any opinions of developers?
-- Michael Becker
-----Original Message----- From: wikien-l-admin@wikipedia.org [mailto:wikien-l-admin@wikipedia.org] On Behalf Of Tony Wilson Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2003 11.58 To: WikiEN Subject: [WikiEN-l] We need a way to deal with AOL vandals THIS year
Right at this moment, Michael is logged in as User:Fuck. He has cottoned on to two key weaknesses in our security setup.
Either one on its own is a problem, but both together is a gaping hole:
(a) There is no way to block a logged-in user if you can't guess his IP address.
(b) You can revert and rollback, but page moves are *much* more difficult to restore. You can't jus rollback a page move, you have to fiddle about making sure you are restoring the right page and not losing the history, and so on.
So far as I can see, there are only three possible solutions - no, make that four, but I don't like the last one much.
(i) Establish a time + number of edits before any new user is unblockable
(ii) Figure out a way to make the Rollback feature work on page moves as well as ordinary edits
(iii) Disallow page moves to ordinary users and make that a sysop-only task
(iv) Pick another half-dozen people, trusted and experienced sysops, and give them the ability to stand in when Brion and Eloquence are not around to block the Michaels of this world. Those guys are great, but they can't be here all the time.
This current vulnerability is a *major* problem, and in my view it needs action RIGHT AWAY.
In the meantime, Michael is running rampage through the database.
Tony
(Tannin)
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On Thu, 5 Jun 2003, Michael Becker wrote:
In addition, I would like a new feature (I'm not asking for much am I? :). I would like a special shared watchlist.
Oh, you can do this already easily enough:
Make a page that links to the pages in question, and use the "related changes" link.
-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)
Michael Becker wikipedia@jumpingjackweb.com wrote: I have to agree with this. Something needs to be done. In addition, I would like a new feature (I'm not asking for much am I? :). I would like a special shared watchlist. This watchlist would be used for watching articles that have been vandalized by vandals like Michael. I have found that he always goes back to the same [type of] article. Basically, there would be an option (for sys op's only) to add a page to vandal hotlist (or something).
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And why would that be for sysops only ? Why would not regular users feeling that a page has been vandalized by a known vandal be trusted ? What of the "trust by default" wikipedia concept ?
I guess that *that* page would be under enough scrutiny not for it to be protected.
I fear you consider only sysops are doing cleaning work. This is not true, and is a dangerous idea. Everyone is welcome to do clean up. Sysops just have additional tools to clean better and quicker.
Keep up with the good work anyway
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