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 https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Penis_goes_in._Penis_comes_out._Can%E2%80%99t_explain_that. to the offensive https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Raise_your_dongers., and includes links to services that may be illegal in the United Kingdom and elsewhere (e.g. unregulated pharmacies https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/The_Secret_Guide_To_List_Of_Approved_Canadian_Pharmacies, cannabis products https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/How_To_THC_Edibles_The_Planet_Using_Just_Your_Blog, and supplements making medical claims https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Penis_Enlagment_And_Growth_Of_Hir_On_Penis_And_Real_Male_Enhancement). 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) _______________________________________________ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk