As most of you are aware, there is a list of bad URL patterns which cannot be added as links to any Wikimedia wiki. It is known as the "spam blacklist" because its original purpose was to fight bot-orchestrated spam attacks. There are currently some open and recent discussions on
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Spam_blacklist
about some additions or possible additions to the spam blacklist of sites which are not spam(med) in the traditional sense. This includes:
* Wikipedia Review, an anti-Wikipedia board. Note that WR has posted personal information about some Wikipedia admins, and is generally full of flames and personal attacks. * Daniel Brandt's sites (Namebase, Google Watch etc.). Brandt has been redirecting all incoming requests from Wikipedia to any of his sites to Wikipedia Review. Brandt also runs his own "Hive Mind" page where several Wikipedia admins are listed with their real world identities, photos, locations, etc. * Wikitruth. This is currently under discussion because it contains content which has been deleted from Wikipedia, often for legal reasons. * Kapitalism.net, Lir's site, which also contains a lengthy anti-Wikipedia rant. Lir has apparently been subverting some blocks to add it to a few articles in Wikipedia.
Not expressing an opinion on this matter, I'd like to simply invite more people to join the discussion on the talk page. One idea that has been expressed is to have a separate list of sites which are not spam, but which are blacklisted for other reasons.
It is worth pointing out that: * The spam blacklist is used by quite a few non-Wikimedia wikis. This may bolster arguments for separate lists, rather than simply separate sections in the same file. * The spam blacklist is designed to fight spam. It will not trigger on normal mentions of a string of characters like "www.kapitalism.net" (without the "http://"). * Even if you were to blacklist the string of characters, humans are generally good at coming up with permutations that break filters.
That being said, please post your opinion of how to deal with these sites on the talk page above.
Thanks,
Erik