a quote from gerardm's link: ***quote:*** I can't speak for Wikipedia's spam blocking process, but I operate a Wiki that is well known enough to get a lot of spam. I block that fairly effectively. Seven pieces of true spam have gotten through over the two and a half years since I implemented the first version of my spam blocking, but I had almost half my site overwritten at one point before that, so I take it pretty seriously. I fully understand why many Wiki owners have decided to make their Wikis read only rather than deal with it and why others have resorted to required logons, confirmations of the existence of a human, and other measures. Some useful factoids: 1. The volume of Wikispam attacks on my site more than doubled last month. I'm sure that Wikipedia gets a great deal more volume than I do and that they probably saw a similar percentage rise. 2. Most Wikispam is focused on raising the Google ranking of one or more web sites. In the past a huge portion of the volume has been focused around pornography sites. This months most commonly advertised site is a search engine called Rollyo. Minor editorial: please boycott that search engine and its associated blog. 3. Wikispam has a fairly predictable content and submission profile. While many Wikis have resorted to logins and address blocking, I've found the content so predictable that I actually removed my IP-based address blocking last month. 4. One of the more predictable aspects of Wikispam is that it is often generated from many machines via robot attacks. One presumes that the attacker is not paying to use all of these different machines (e.g. that the machines have been hijacked). 5. The middle east (and more specifically, Quatar, Kuwait, and the UAE in general) has proven to be a major source of robot attacks. I don't know if this means anything, but it suggests that machines in that part of the world are either poorly secured or have been effectively targeted by robot builders. I also get a lot of robot attacks through (presumably South) Korea. I don't want to make any great claims, at least in part because I don't want to increase the attack frequency on my site or get slashdotted, but my software has been very effective in blocking almost everything that the spammers throw at me. I don't currently block any countries and am reluctant to publicly reveal the rules I use for the blocking, but do block about a dozen IP addresses that have been used enough to suggest that they are directly associated with individual spammers. ***end of quote*** happy new year :-P oscar ps the case of thailand and waerth specifically is now being discussed at the dutch list, and i do hope we find a solution soon On 1/1/07, GerardM <gerard.meijssen(a)gmail.com> wrote: -- DISCLAIMER: This message does not represent an official position of the Wikimedia Foundation, its Board of Trustees, nor of Wikimedia Nederland and its Board.

Hoi, Well you know as well as I do that on the Dutch moderator mailing list often discussions are held that do not really need to be confidential or limited to the Dutch moderators. Then again by not having some discussions in the open, often a lot less angry words are said. This in turn as you know and agree helps to concentrate on what is most important.. the one thing you sadly cannot be part of at the moment.. working on content. Thanks, GerardM On 1/1/07, Walter van Kalken <walter(a)vankalken.net> wrote:

It is very nice to see people discussing about a situation which they do not know off because they have never confronted it. This will lead to some rosy coloured decisions based on what is possible in the west. Not on what is possible in the rest of the world. Also Gerard you are not a mod and still on the nl-mods list! Which is a very strange situation. These kind of discussions involve all of the nl. community. Andre Engels who is not on that list is interested in that discussion as well. But he is not able to contribute. Is this the way we go on nl: ? The mods get to decide our future for us? And as you know I refuse to actively work on content. Only the bombings were an exception for me. But now if I have to go through so much trouble to do something, I am not a vandal remember, I might as well do nothing. Waerth

That is because I stay who I am and refuse to become a rose speckled glasses person who talks very politically correct. It is the problem of other people. Not mine. If people want me to someone I am not they can wait untill the sun goes supernova. My good ideas nor my prolific writing haven't changed. What has changed is that I have become even more of a minority then I was. Imho wikimedia is drowning in people wo are PC and without experience outside of the western world. Which means that either nothing gets done, or decisions are made like on en:wikipedia were they discriminate now. Waerth

Hoi, Do I understand correctly that this was not communicated to Walter .. This would thereby demonstrate that it did not function effectively ?? Thanks, GerardM oscar schreef: