I agree re: AbuseFilter, but I was starting with the low-hanging fruit. Installing AbuseFilter and copying some of the basic Wikimedia anti-spam filters would be a better permanent solution!

On Sun, 28 Aug 2022 at 14:19, Lewis Cawte <lewiscawte@googlemail.com> wrote:

I'll add to this one - I'm not even convinced the Captcha is set up correctly. QuestyCaptcha is showing as enabled, but, it is terrible (particularly as soon as a bot operator has solved the question(s)) and I don't see ConfirmEdit enabled. I'd also expect to see AbuseFilter, which isn't enabled either. 

I'd be hesitant of locking down account creation long term, but, it's certainly a good temporary move as the wiki is getting barraged by spambots currently.

Still happy to help/advise on the wiki, drawing from both my personal experience of plenty of MW setups and running ShoutWiki.

Lewis Cawte ([[User:Lcawte]])

Wikimedia user, occasional developer / ShoutWiki tech lead

On Sun, 28 Aug 2022 at 13:55, Richard Jenkins <richardjenkins28@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello all,

Apologies if I sound like a broken record, but I want to raise the issue of spam on the Wikimedia UK wiki again as it seems nothing has happened since Sammy/TheresNoTime reported the issue a few weeks ago.

There are currently over 75,000 pages on the wiki, and I'd wager that about 95% of them are spam. Hundreds of pages of vacuous crap are created every day.

[Warning - links contain adult text content]

The spam ranges from the bizarre to the offensive, and includes links to services that may be illegal in the United Kingdom and elsewhere (e.g. unregulated pharmacies, cannabis products, and supplements making medical claims). I found these examples with a thirty second search, and I do not doubt that there are worse ones out there.

I realise & respect that most of the people involved with the running of the site are volunteers or only employed by WMUK on a part-time basis, but given that the initial actions Sammy proposed (preventing anonymous editing and locking down account creation) would take about ten minutes maximum I am befuddled as to why they've not been implemented.

I know that Sammy offered their help, and I am also happy to assist with the fixes and clean-up. (I'm an administrator on the English Wikipedia and have administered MediaWiki installations myself, if it helps.)

Thanks for reading,

Richard / (User:Firefly on Wikimedia projects)

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