That sounds like a good idea, John.
Also, to elaborate on my early proposed idea for this master spam IP list, I'm a fan of having an invitation only wiki website where vetted users can submit known spammer IPs and IP ranges to a community IP list that can be imported into any MediaWiki wiki.
I'm not sure how this proposed wiki would be structured (i.e. - whether it would be a regular wiki, using Semantic MediaWiki, etc.), but I would be interested in a wiki dedicated to fighting wiki spam where vetted users can create IP blacklists for spammers, swap information on known spammers and ways to combat them, and in the interests of security, it may be necessary to restrict page viewing to confirmed members only.
Past that, I don't have too many more ideas I can submit for this brainstorming session, but some form of master anti-spammer IP list in some usable form sounds like a great idea in any event.
Date: Fri, 24 May 2013 17:48:02 -0400 From: phoenixoverride@gmail.com To: alj62888@yahoo.com; mediawiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [MediaWiki-l] Wiki spam. Stronger fightback.
One thing that might work (wouldnt be 100%) would be a method for identifying IP ranges of know abuse where legit collateral is minimal and keeping a database of these and auto-blocking them.
These IPs are typically those of:
- known web-hosting services
- Proxy Services
- data-center providers
- similar cases where risk of legit end user usage is minimal.
I know working with anti-spam efforts that there are several know ISP's that 99% of their traffic is spam. If something like this is implemented it could reduce spam by as much as 80% or more.
On Fri, May 24, 2013 at 5:19 PM, Al Johnson alj62888@yahoo.com wrote:
More brainstorming ideas about this...
A centralized DB would require a site requiring heavy use since it would be hit for each edit submission from every participating site. An alternative would be a subscriber model where the global list (or updates) is downloaded periodically by subscribers.
How long to block an IP? I'm not an expert in this area, but what if the IP is blocked for an extended period of time, such as ONE YEAR. If that IP ends up being reissued to a legitimate ISP customer and he gets blocked, that will alert that user that his ISP is either participating in spamming or is tolerating spammers user of their IPs which is affecting regular customers. This may sound harsh, but this could force ISPs to address the problem with their spammer customers. And, there is still a workaround for the legit user who can usually just reboot their modem to get a new IP address.
Just thinking out load... al
From: Al Johnson alj62888@yahoo.com To: MediaWiki announcements and site admin list < mediawiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org> Sent: Friday, May 24, 2013 2:41 PM Subject: Re: [MediaWiki-l] Wiki spam. Stronger fightback.
Maybe mediawiki sites can unite to keep a global list of these IP's and block them as soon as they are submitted. Each mediawiki site can auto-submit a spammer IP as soon as it's discovered to the global list. What are the problems with this idea?
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