Many thanks for the update Katie :) I appreciate that I'm sounding like a broken record, and for that I do wholeheartedly apologise!

Given the recent announcement of the 2022 UK Wikimedian of the year, I'm not sure pointing people at https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/UK_Wikimedian_of_the_Year_2022 is the best idea until this is resolved.

Could I at least get SSH access to the web server and make the changes I suggested at https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Spam#LocalSettings.php — I'm happy to sign whatever NDA/agreements necessary if my WMF staff ones don't cut it?

These small changes should only take a few minutes and will give y'all some breathing space to implement a more permanent solution.

Kind regards,

--

    Sammy Tarling (she/her)

Software Engineer

Wikimedia Foundation

On Tue, 30 Aug 2022 at 10:09, Katie Crampton <katie.crampton@wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:

Hi all

Just to highlight, the server needs updating, so it's not a 10 minute fix. Our developer has been contacted and we're awaiting a response from her. Agree it's very annoying, thanks for highlighting some of the articles, I've deleted the ones you linked.

Best wishes

Katie

On Mon, 29 Aug 2022 at 09:35, Lucy Crompton-Reid <lucy.crompton-reid@wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:

Many thanks for the offers of help to sort this out. Most staff/contractors aren't working today as it's a bank holiday (and I am currently in my painting dungarees!) but I'm going to highlight this to the relevant people again tomorrow and will let them know of the practical offers of help that have been made to sort this out. I agree it's very frustrating. Best, Lucy

On Sun, 28 Aug 2022 at 16:40, Dreamy Jazz <dreamyjazzwikipedia@gmail.com> wrote:

I agree with the previous. Its not a good thing to have this much spam on a wiki. I am also happy to help clean up spam (enwiki admin, OS and CU who also does patches for CheckUser).

On Sun, 28 Aug 2022, 14:53 Richard Jenkins, <richardjenkins28@gmail.com> wrote:

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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--

Lucy Crompton-Reid (she/her)

Chief Executive

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Katie Crampton (she/her)

Communications & Governance Coordinator

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